Backstory: Charred Black
by FerreTrip
Summary: Shortish OC-centered story, occurs after Charizard chapter of my other fic, IGTH:GCeA!. A shiny charizard comes weakly into the Charicific Valley--and a very strange one at that. And Ash's Charizard's gotta deal with him. T for weirdness and dirty mouths.
1. Depression

***,*'*,* Subplot - Charred Black *,*'*,***

_*:Author's Warning--Please Read:*_

*******The following story contains a large amount of weirdness. This mostly involves stomach-related weirdness. (Read: This includes a medium-light dose of, I will admit, fatfur. However, this contains absolutely NO yiff or other overly disgusting sexual material related to it, so don't run away screaming bloody murder. Feel free to flame me if I DO put in anything like that on accident, since I have vowed to refrain from that sort of thing in an effort to retain my dignity.) It also includes a lot of "dammit"'s. Please take this with a grain of salt. If you have anything you want to say--even insults--review or e-mail. Insulters, please, _**no flames**_--instead, _**just give constructive criticism**_, like, "I don't like how you..." or "This is just too weird--there's..." or "I think you should have..." etc. Thank you and I hope you enjoy regardless. If you don't want to read anymore, don't feel angry--this has no real purpose in my main stories, except maybe--MAYBE--if I choose to try and write one of them. Even then, you only will need the next chapter.*******

*******'*,*'* Chapter One - Depression *'*,*'***

The lightning cracked, the thunder boomed, the rain poured, and the wind howled. The Charicific Valley was facing a fierce maelstrom. Liza grunted in effort as she made her way to the gate to close it for the night. She held onto her yellow rainhat while clutching her matching slicker shut while she closed one eye to protect it from the downpour. "Nnnnngh! Man, this had better be a quick storm like they say it is!" she muttered. "The charizards' flames will be put out from flooding at this rate!"

She finally reached the gates and stopped. She took her hat and stuck it between her teeth while she fiddled with the buttons on her raincoat. "Shoulda done this sooner...stupid me..." she mumbled, fighting the flapping of the yellow, canvas-backed material.

"Uuunnn..."

"!" Liza stopped and looked up sharply as she heard what sounded like a boy with a bit of a frog in his throat groaning in weakness. She peered out into the night and made out a faint glowing light. "Huh...?" She hurried to finish her coat, then put her hat back on and stepped outside the gates. "Hello?" she called.

"Unnngh..." came the reply.

With the brim of the hat shielding her eyes, Liza could get a better look at the person coming towards her. The light was getting stronger, and it made a shiny, slick, dark outline in front of it. A large, rounded patch was now quite visible to her. She gasped as she realized that the light behind it was attatched to the figure. "A...!"

Without any further hesitation, she dashed down the slope to the form, which had just collapsed. She skidded to a halt, slipping and falling onto her left arm with a grunt before scrabbling up onto her knees. "Are you okay?" she asked, putting her hands on the body. As she thought, slick scales met her palms and fingers. When only another groan came, she found the left arm of the figure and hoisted it up to bear its reasonable weight on her shoulder. "C'mon, you're coming in with me," she said, making her way back up the slope.

"...Please..."

She caught her breath and looked at her right. A head on a long neck was bowing down, hanging loosely. "Did you...?" she whispered.

"...Don't...look...at me..."

When she finally got back to the gate, she closed it and went as fast as she could, which was faster now that she had level ground, to her hut. Once inside, she looked at her companion. "Knew it," she said, face concerned. "A shiny."

A black and white charizard was unconscious on her shoulder.

**-*-**

Liza awoke the next morning to find the shiny charizard still out cold on her bed for injured charizard. She frowned, but continued about her morning routine as normal. After, she stepped outside to find the rain had lightened up considerably to a gentle, enjoyable patter. Breaking out a flame-designed umbrella, she looked and found her charizard, Charla, in her cave behind the hut. "Morning, Charla," she called.

Charla bugled back quietly.

Liza half-smiled. "You know there's someone inside, right?" she asked. "I mean, his window's right in front of you, practically." She made her way over to her.

Charla nodded. She cocked her head curiously, pink bow bobbing.

"A shiny, I know," Liza nodded back, stopping next to her and turning to face the window. The dark form was sleeping inside. "...He talks."

Charla raised her eyeridges and looked at her in surprise. "Ruh?"

"I'm not joking!" Liza insisted, laughing up at her pokémon. "I'm serious! I found him last night. He said not to look at him..." She looked back. "...He's very interesting. I don't think he's got anything to worry about, though," she assured, "since he's healthy enough to have a bit of a paunch. That'll have fed him if nothing else. Well...unless he is experiencing respiratory trouble..." She trailed off.

Charla frowned at this.

**-*-**

The next day came, and Liza found that the black charizard wasn't in his room. She panicked and raced outside in her pajamas. The rain had stopped midway through the day yesterday and had left only a few puddles now. The world smelled fresh and clean. She saw the odd-colored dual-type walking slowly off, making small stomping sounds, towards the gate. "WAIT!!" she called.

The charizard stopped, one paw on the gate, and turned to look at her.

Liza was coming over, slowing down. "You still need some food! And why'd you come all the way here if you're...not..." She stopped as she looked up at his face.

He gave her a small, sad frown, half-dropped lids, and eyes that just...looked at her. His tail flame, she also noted, was pretty low--strongly burning, nary a flicker, but low.

Liza put a hand to her mouth. "Oh...Are...you okay?" she asked.

The charizard turned to the gate again.

"Don't leave! Why come here in the first place if you're going to go away?" she asked, frowning a little.

The charizard clutched some of the wrought iron.

"...This is a welcome home for all charizard. You'll be safe here," Liza assured him, putting a hand on his shoulder gently. "I mean...if you need to leave, you should, but..."

The charizard blinked, breathing quietly for a moment, before looking up and out at the beautiful landscape of the valley before him. The birds chirped somewhere. The clouds crawled across the sky. The rocks proudly displayed their colors. He sighed and turned around, going the other way from Liza, and began walking off to a cliff wall at the other end of the "plaza" in the valley.

Liza smiled and clasped her hands together. "Oh, good! Thank you!" she said happily. "You'll love it here! Just come to me if you have any trouble!"

He made no sign that he had heard. He only slowly walked off.

Liza watched on for a bit, smiling, before her mouth fell into a worried line again. "I wonder what happened to him..." she mumbled.

**-*-**

Charizard stepped out of his cave, yawning and stretching as he felt the Johto morning sun shining down and warming his scales and hide. He disliked the rain, but had to admit it made a nice scent fresh from a fall, which made the morning that much better. He loved his home in the Charicific Valley, and enjoied as much of it as he could. He looked left and right at the entrance to his moderately-sized cave that could comfortably fit two charizards of his size--but was perfect for him. 'What to do first?' he wondered.

In front of him was the top of a crooked wall that limited the area that any people below could walk around without climbing or otherwise getting up there to him. He was across the way from another cave, one of the large caves that made up the majority of the ones in the valley. A good, wide ledge wrapped right around the little jutting rock peninsula his cave was under the tip of, and held no caves. Left had another, but with a gap between the ledges and some caves along there. He could see in the distance to the first direction a place where the ground was fertile enough to bear a small forest. There were plenty of berry trees there, as well as other, general trees that his trainer sees daily on his journey. To his left was the direction of the gates and Liza's hut. All around were other charizard waking up and exiting their homes to enjoy the outdoors after the rain. Charizard licked his lips and decided to fly out and grab some breakfast.

Sometime after he had left, the monochrome-bodied, red-winged charizard flew up to a wall to the top. He landed clumsily, as if he was inept at flight, or if he was pushing himself very hard. Other charizard turned to look at the newbie. They instantly narrowed their eyeridges and paid him no positive heed.

"What's one of those fancy-shmancy shinys doing up here?" muttered one, using the language of their kind.

"A runt, too. Bet it's a domestic one, like that trainer's one," grumbled another by the first.

"Look, a little lardtail's come up to find some breakfast," jeered someone else.

Others acted unkindly, most just didn't bother at all. As they spoke, the shiny charizard's face, still sunken, changed slightly. A small grimace formed on his lips. He clenched his fists, walking a little slower, and bowed his head lower than the droop it normally was. He pushed past a few charizard who had decided to crowd around him to get somewhere. Anywhere.

He made it, after a few minutes' walk, to a cave at the end of an isthmus of stone ahead. He hopped the gap and came around to the tip of the penninsula it was on, looking around. Everyone had decided to just go on and get some food. Breathing slightly heavily, the shiny sat at the right side of the entrance, curling his tail out in front of him from between his legs. Some charizard going past jeered at him.

The shiny looked on, sadness in his eyes as he wore his rarely-changing mask of brooding. A few passing pokémon later, he bowed his head down to his chest, closing his eyes. "Nowhere," he whispered in Human.

His bigger-than-average stomach let out a rumbling growl. He gave it an angry right hook without moving his head to look. His fist sank in halfway.

"Dammit..."

**-*-**

Charizard returned an hour later, having eaten his fill. While he flew in, he raised his eyeridges in surprise and made a curious, "Groo?" as he saw the black-and-white speck below that was the shiny. He narrowed them a little after when he saw what it was. "Great, one of those stuck-up..." he muttered. He growled and shook his head as he dived down to land.

The shiny didn't make a single sign he noticed Charizard landing. Charizard looked down, arms crossed as he looked around his fit front's curvature at him. "This is my cave," he said curtly. "Unless you're lookin' for a fight, you'd better leave, dullard." 'Dullard' was a term used by pokémon for shiny charizard or other shinys whose appearance was mostly greyscale.

Grrruumble. "Leave me alone," came back the barely-any-effort reply in Charizard.

Charizard snorted, flicking his head to a side. A wisp of flame, the size lighters made, came from his nostrils. "If you wanna be alone, MAKE yourself alone," he growled. "This is my turf."

To his surprise, the shiny made no further argument. From leaning back against the rockface, he rocked himself forwards, leaned on his right leg, lifted his left, and swung his tail out from in front of him, curving to minimize hitting things, before stomping down again and rising in less than a second. He was only slightly shorter than Charizard, but he probably weighed about as much, if not more. He nodded and turned to the right, going down the ledge. A good ten feet away, he sat down again, doing the reverse of what he'd done to stand, albiet slower. His stomach growled once more.

Charizard blinked at him. Something in his battle-loving heart pinged. "Wow," he muttered before turning out again, still looking at the shiny. "First charizard I've met who hasn't challenged me to a battle after doing that." He looked away to take off. 'But that vibe I'm getting from him's getting on my nerves...but I dunno if he's just doing that on purpose or what...'

Charizard left just as the pebbles around the shiny rattled and danced as the rumbling increased in intensity from the dragonlike creature's paunch. The shiny punched it again, harder.

**-*-**

"GRROOAAAUGH!!"

WHAMMO!! "GNNGH!"

A small crowd of charizard bugled and stomped their feet. A small crowd of charizard roared and snarled. Charizard himself smirked as he landed from a successful Seismic Tossing of another, much, much larger charizard to the ground of a slightly grassy spot near a cliff face.

"I can go AAAALLLLLL day, Verkcld," Charizard taunted, getting into fighting position as soon as he landed.

Verkcld grunted and shook as he pushed himself up, looking daggers at Charizard...make that plural......WHUMP.

A loud whistle was heard. A charizard about one and a half times as big as Charizard held a paw up while curving its lips into an O still. "Verkcld is down! Charizard wins!" it barked. The audience reacted accordingly, half for Charizard and half for Verkcld.

Charizard smirked before he stomped his foot and bugled to the sky, wings fluttering a bit and tail lashing.

Charla, in the audience on his side, smiled, bow waving in the wind. As Charizard came over, she said, "That's the sixth fight in a row that you've won! You're really on a roll!"

Charizard blushed a little, grinning sheepishly. "W-Well, I guess I just have my game back, that's all," he said. He was always shy around Charla.

"It's going to be lunch soon. What're you thinking?" Charla asked as everyone dispersed, them walking together.

Charizard smirked and held his paws up, eyes closed. "A nap, what else?" he asked.

Charla giggled, which sounded odd for a draconic being to do with as growly a voice as her kind had. "Charizard, you're lazy, you know that?" she asked, smiling friendily.

Charizard waggled a claw, opening an eye. "I'm only lazy if I sit around all day," he said. "I fly, train, and battle; THEN I sit around all day."

She laughed. "You're something else, you know that, Charizard?" she smiled.

Charizard smirk-grinned. "Thanks for noticing," he replied.

Charla gave him a playful-but-disappointed eyeridge raise before swatting him between the horns. "You're not supposed to say yes," she admonished.

"You're a slow learner, since that's the hundreth time you've said that," he defended, paw on his head.

Charla sighed and shrugged. "Boys," she grumbled. She smiled and let her arms down. "Well, I'm going to hop over to Liza before she has time to think up a tirade for her sherpa," the charizardess said. She held a paw up and diverged. "Until we meet again, Charizard!"

"Bye!" Charizard waved back before she took off. He turned to face front and took off, as well, to fly the short distance to his cave. 'I wonder if she...naaah,' he thought, blushing. 'I still need to prove myself to her, I think.'

His thoughts about Charla were interrupted when he saw the shiny was still in the spot he'd left him. He knew because there had been a noticable notch in the wall to his left, a half foot from his buttock. "Grm? He asleep here in the shade?" Charizard muttered, tilting his head. He shook it and looked at the front of his cave. "He wants to be left alone, I'll leave him alone," he grumbled. He landed in front of his home and swept his tail across a swath of rock before lying down on his side, propping his head in a paw while he faced out from his cave. He yawned and skritched his stomach before mumbling, "Ooooh, this sun feels good..." He settled down to nap.

A minute after he'd entered a light doze, though, he was awoken by a vibrating in the ground and a strange sound that, a half second after hearing it, his waking mind recognized as a stomach growling. He growled, himself, and cocked his head up. It was coming from his right. A couple seconds later, the growling stopped. He shook his head and grumbled back down.

A half minute later, however, he was stirred again by the same thing. He paid no heed, though, fighting to ignore it. It was a bit longer this time, but faded again. Another minute passed before, again, the rumbling came. The increased strength was enough to jitter the gravel around his body, and it lasted even longer. Charizard anger-veined slightly, grumbling and shifting his position to one where his head was upside-down on the ground and his chest supported his paws, snout straight out from his cave. It faded, but returned soon afterwards, stronger again. He growled, anger-veined again, and moved around to curl up, facing the other side of the cave, with his head in his arms.

He waited a few seconds. It stopped for good.

He sighed and relaxed a little--which he cursed silently as he felt a rumble. The shaking creschendoed, and he could hear the sound getting louder, as well. He clenched his fists as he fought to endure it, but it was getting very loud for a stomach's complaints and very powerful. And it wasn't ending, continuing to go on as the winged orange lizard growled louder and louder. Five seconds...ten...fifteen...When it hit twenty, Charizard's anger-vein was as big as his head and his eyes shot open, bloodshot in rage, and his teeth bared in a snarl. The pebbles were jumping around, now, and one popped off his head.

Whipping up and around, he grabbed the wall with a paw and leaned out to look at the shiny, still sitting there. Now, though, his head was bowed entirely in the space between chest and gut. He seemed to be muttering something. Spitting fire with every word and burning fire in his eyes, Charizard roared, "ARE YOU DOIN' THIS ON PURPOSE OR SOMETHIN'?!"

The shiny looked up and over at him with a glare and a frown. "The hell would I?" he asked, barely audible above the earthquake his body was making. His belly was unnervingly rippling like water, and it wasn't from his paws on it--one clutching it tight and another in a fist on it. The growl spiked up in volume and intensity breifly, causing the shiny to turn back and wince. "Stop, stop...dammit..." He punched it feebly a couple of times. He gripped it with his other paw so hard, he drew a little blood.

Charizard blinked normal and widened his eyes at this. He now noticed that the creature's color was a bit pale, even the white stomach. He then narrowed his eyeridges. "You frikkin' starving yourself or something?!" he asked, stomping over a couple steps, closing six of the ten feet to him. He crossed his arms and leaned down to be more level with the shiny, head now two feet from his. The noise was amazing. 'I didn't even know a stomach could growl that loud, at least anyone's besides a snorlax's!'

"Leave me alone!" the shiny shouted back, not looking at Charizard. The growling faded down a little, then up a bit again. It was fluxuating. By now, it'd been rumbling for a minute straight.

Charizard growled, "What the hell's WRONG with you? Anorexic or something?!" he asked. "You're going to hurt yourself with that thing if you don't shut it up, if yannow what I mean!!"

The shiny only grimaced and continued gripping and pounding. Finally, after a record minute-thirty and a final squeal, the loudest complaints a stomach had ever given to Charizard's knowledge ended. The shiny flopped his head down onto his gut, panting a bit. "...It's getting worse...dammit, I hate this fucking thing..."

Charizard lifted a nostril. "Get something, then," he snarled. "We've got tons of berries, but there's also great game in the valley. Just eat."

"Leave me alone."

Charizard sighed and shook his head before walking back. He looked over his shoulder again before clenching a fist.

**-*-**

A smaller, much shorter bout later, the shiny had finally succeeded in bruising his gut. He bit it, feeling the soft flesh in his mouth. "Die," he muttered in Human. "Die, die, die, die...all of you..." He looked at his paws a bit above him as he did. Tears peeked from the corners of his eyes.

"Weirdo!"

The shiny looked up and saw something about the size of a beach ball being thrown at him. He instinctively caught it, fighting to keep his face nonchalant. He looked at it in his paws, resting on his stomach. It was a huge hunk of meat, comically in the old roll-on-a-double-ended-bone form. The browned surface was steamy, feeling nice to his Fire-type body, and smelled delicious. He twitched an eyeridge before looking up as he heard a landing.

"Eat it, already," Charizard told him tiredly in annoyance, peeking his head from around the wall. "Lemme get some rest." He disappeared.

The shiny glared with an unchanging face at the spot he was, then at the meat. His stomach gurgled a little, calling his attention. Slowly, he grimaced, rage forming on his face before he finally gave a bona fide Mega Punch to his gut. "DAMMIT!! Fine!" he shouted before ripping a piece of meat off. He teared up a little as he ate, cursing whenever he could. He tore another hunk off and began eating ravenously. He even, in anger, crunched the bone and sucked out the marrow before spitting out the shards and swallowing the two ends, rounded side down first. "Dammit, dammit, dammit," he grumbled. He watched his stomach, which was lumpy with the new food...and finally quiet. He buried his nose in his chest again, resting his paws on his stomach.

Twenty minutes later, tears ran down his cheeks as he felt his paws lifting just barely noticably. "Die, please..." he whispered in Human.

**-*-**

That evening, after dinner (which Charizard saw didn't include the shiny, who sat still in his spot from before), the sunset sky was intruded by cumulonimbus coming their way. "Aw, come on! It JUST rained!!" many of the charizard complained. They hurried to their caves before another stormy night rolled in, though, all the same. Charizard went to see Charla safe and sound in her cave before departing for his. It was raining by then, and not gently. "Why is it raining? Why?" he complained to nobody as he winged through the windy, wet sky.

He saw another new sight at his cave, though, and he snarled. "Oh, no, you don't, weirdo!!" he barked. He landed quickly, sliding and grunting from the shock, before stomping over to the shiny charizard plodding along, dragging his tail as he slowly entered Charizard's cave. Charizard got to the near end of the entrance and put a paw on it, other on his hip as he looked at the halfway-in pokémon. "And where do you think you're--" he began to ask, but he stopped.

The shiny had turned his head and given him an expression over his shoulder. He looked like he had when he did the same to Liza that morning, but Charizard could see the pain in his eyes so much better than any human ever could. They were close to dead. After a moment, the shiny turned again and continued in. Charizard saw, by the light of his small tailflame, him curl up in a corner, sighing as his cheek brushed his stomach--which looked a bit bigger?

Charizard blinked, then groaned and shook his head. "Fine, you little...dammit, can't think of the word," he grumbled, stepping in. "Only for tonight, though. Find your own hole to crawl into and cause an avalance tomorrow, though. Go to the springs, since there're more of your kind there." He went and lay down on his little rock bed in the other corner. He looked a few seconds at him before shaking his head and closing his eyes. As soon as he did, more memories of the day ran through his mind. All of them around the shiny.

He remembered how the others shunned him or jeered when flying by. He remembered how he acted like an antisocial freak. He remembered how he, himself, treated him. 'This kid's got problems,' he knew. 'And not just with himself...' He forced himself to let slumber take him away before his thoughts kept him up.

**-*-**

To Charizard's relief, the shiny was gone the next morning. It was no longer raining, thankfully; it had ended around midnight, being a sudden summer storm. He stepped out into the morning sun again and didn't see him anywhere. 'Good, he went out to find food for himself or something.'

As it happened, the shiny was walking along, carrying an armful of berries he slowly munched upon. "If these make me gain weight, too, then I'll just kill myself," he grumbled to himself. His belly, indeed at least a quarter inch thicker now, jiggled along as he deliberately plodded forwards. He suddenly stumbled and nearly dropped his food as he slammed to the ground. An advantage of being overweight was that he was shielded from much of the impact damage on his front, though he would have rather let it hurt him full-force. "Dammit." He pushed himself up, tail helping since his arms were full, and tried to ignore a couple of laughing charizard around him.

The shiny stopped at another cliff wall. Looking up, he couldn't help but wonder, 'If this is a valley, why are there so many landbridges?' He shook his head and looked at his armful. Five berries left, and he was getting tired of eating them. "Dammit," he said again, then shoved them down his long throat whole, one after the other. He then crouched and, with a lot of effort in his grunt, took off. After a weary vertical climb, he reached the top. He grabbed the edge and pulled himself up before sprawling onto his back limply, panting. "...Dammit..."

Catching his breath, he turned to look at the last section of the valley. It was a huge hot springs, with pools of steaming water rimming a cul de sac of stone sides and sand islands and ground. There was one pool in the center, though, that appeared to go quite deep--you couldn't see bottom from the misty surface--and was very large, providing the water that covered almost the entire springs (save for the islets and the pools created by lengths of islets). Shelves held some sitting shinys, and there were quite a few holes. One shiny in particular caught his attention--the largest. He had to be as big as a house, easily the largest there, as he sat his spreading ass on top a ledge on the far end in the middle. He was also quite large in front, too, which the little shiny spat at. "Sittin' all like a pampered, fat king," he muttered. "Bet he's a hypocrite, too." He sighed and walked down the slope to the springs.

When he entered, the shinys all looked at him and raised their eyeridges. A few didn't narrow them, though.

"Great, a fat shrimp."

"Look at this sad sack! What's HE want here?"

"I thought we had enough trouble with new faces a week ago..."

"Hey! Who the heck are you, shorty??"

"...Is it wrong I think he looks adorable?"

"No."

"VERY."

The smallest shiny paid no visible attention, though, and instead made his way to a pool in the corner. He waded in, lifting his tail only to keep the flame above water. He slumped down at the end, sitting in the hot springs that would scald a human, sinking his head low enough that his nostrils were all that stuck up. His head resembled a horned, orange-colored alligator waiting for prey. It felt GOOOOD, but he didn't care about that right then. He sighed in aggrivation as his stomach lifted up a little, arching his back slightly. "Maybe I should give up and eat to death," he growled in Human, making bubbles. He took advantage of the tiny white patch peeking up and rested his tail on it.

A larger shiny charizard waded over to him, crossing his arms. "Well, well, a new shiny, eh?" he asked, cocking his head.

The small one made no reply. Not even when the larger one prodded him with a sharp talon.

"So? Who're you, shrimp?" asked the larger one.

"Leave me alone, please," the small one said quietly.

The large one raised his eyeridges, but shrugged. "Right, right, whatever, shorty," he grumbled, turning around to wade off.

For the next couple of hours, the small shiny eavesdropped in on the others' conversations. He didn't find much of anything that lightened his mood. He often heard comments about his size--both small and large. A few tried to talk to him--even a friendly-sounding one--but he always asked them to leave him alone.

Then, a few of them stopped talking and looked up as a fwooshing sound was heard. "Uh-oh, here he comes," said one relatively nearby the smallest shiny.

"Get your tails up!"

All around, shinys lifted up their tails, some standing.

"Medic crew, get ready for the snoozers!"

A few shinys groaned. "Don't they know you shouldn't sleep in a hot spring?" one asked.

A monstrous shadow loomed over the spring as a few pebbles crumbled from the shelf near the smallest shiny's spot. He looked up and saw a great form blot out the sun, curled into a ball. He widened his eyes, but then sighed and closed them. "Might as well," he said softly.

KAABWOOOOOOOSHHAA!!!

The biggest cannonball in the world sent up a waterspout of boiling water from the central pool. The entire springs was flooded with water from the displacement. The smallest shiny was covered in four extra feet of water thanks to the largest. As soon as it hit his tail, all went black.

**-**

"Rrrnnngh..."

Slowly, the world came back to his eyes. He saw the sky above. He was on something smooth and soft. A bed? He placed a paw to his side and pressed gently. He froze and sweatdropped as he realized what it was. "Oh, God, no..." he muttered.

"Dumbass's awake," said a voice.

"He's so tiny, I didn't think he'd come to so quick," said another.

"You call five minutes 'quick' when the average time is one?" asked yet another.

The smallest shiny leaned up and looked around. He saw a small hill of white around him, which was surrounded by other charizard and hot water. He knew what he was on and turned around to look up. Staring down at him, arms crossed and face frowning, was the biggest pokémon he'd ever seen in his entire life. Screw the big-as-a-house, this guy was that and at least five feet more. Since a house is at least sixteen feet, adding six for a roof and then this five meant this guy had to be at LEAST twenty-seven feet tall. And that was just sitting. Causing him to wince slightly and look at himself, the smallest--and feeling smaller than ever--felt a tingle of envy in his chest. He quickly looked up again when he realized he may have offended someone who could eat him whole--and, who knew, might very well have. How else could he have gotten so big??

The mega-zard shook his great head. "Careless actions, little one," he boomed. "Letting such a weak tail go out even after being warned all around? And letting that tail become so low in the first place?"

The smallest looked down. He saw his own gut, like a baby versus an adult when he saw the white around it, too. He turned and began walking off, deciding something. "I don't care," he said quietly.

The others raised their eyeridges. The largest one did, too, which was impressive, to say the least. "You...?" he asked. He narrowed his eyes and reached down a massive pair of claws, the actual claws sunken in just slightly from the flesh around it. "Stop, little one, please," he rumbled.

As the paw came to him, the smallest one grimaced and said, "Leave me alone!" before dashing across the bouncy surface and using said bounce to take off. He soared off and away.

The largest shiny frowned in disappointment at him, reaching still. "He is quite troubled," he said quietly (which was really about a small shout). "Strange, yes, but for a reason."

"Elder Gigaiya?" asked one of the shinys, looking up at him.

"Be calm, he is gone," Gigaiya said, looking back down. He smiled kindly. "It is best not to worry too much about that. Perhaps his flame shall rise and he will return."

"IF he returns," scoffed another, crossing his arms as he leaned his back against the elder's butt, sinking in a bit. His tail was underwater, but the flame was still alight. A small stream of steam curled from the spot as the water evaporated. "He's one of those wussies, I know it."

Gigaiya grunted disapprovingly at this, closing his eyes and lifting his muzzle. With just a slight lean, he caused half of the spring to erupt into laughter, and one part of it flailing and mumming and bubbling. "And I know you often forget that I mete out punishment freely when bathing," the oversized, overweight charizard grumbled, crossing his arms again.

**-*-**

"C'moonnn..."

"Grrrrruu!!"

Charizard sweated furiously, veins popping from his forehead and arm as he battled another charizard in an arm wrestle on top a log in the woods section of the valley. It was a stalemate, and he wasn't about to lose--especially to a charizard whose paw was so big, he could grasp his own in one claw. They'd been at it for nineteen seconds--twenty.

"Don't hurt yourself, Charizard!" Charla warned worriedly from the sidelines.

""BREAK HIS ARM!!"" rooted the larger one's cohorts, pumping their own.

"I'm...TRYING..." the big one grunted, annoyed.

It was a hard battle he was fighting, but Charizard would not give in. He was gritting his sharp teeth into a solid mass of enamel, smoke was coming with each breath, and his tailflame was roaring. "So...am...I..." Charizard wheezed.

A moment later, the bigger one grunted, "Screw it!" and pressed his lowest digit down HARD on the lower one of Charizard's.

The pain on the thinly-protected body part was quite unpleasant, and as Charizard winced in agony, his arm rushed down to the wood. A spark went through his skull as he narrowed his eyes. 'OH, NO, YA DON'T!' With fierce determination, he stopped the arm and fought with all of his might. The other was quite surprised, but kept pressing. Charizard thought he was going to be without a third claw if this kept up, but he pushed with every ounce of strength he owned, determination fueling him along. 'I'm not going to give up now!! Never!!'

And, to everyone's amazement, he slowly, inch by inch, began winning.

The big one widened his eyes before growling and pushing as hard as he could without cheating, tail lashing wildly.

Fire seethed out of the tiny holes between tooth and gum from Charizard's gritted teeth as his tailflame burned even brighter, now even bigger than his opponent's. His arm was turning red, as was his face. One could see, beneath the scales and hide, his arm, his right trapezius (I think), and his right pectoral muscles working harder than ever before, at least one small vein being pushed up from the iron-hard-tensed fibers. It felt like he was pushing against a bar of solid metal--very thick metal, since he could now bend a normal one pretty far, now, without as much resistance. But he kept pushing.

And so did his opponent.

_POP._

Incredible pain shot through Charizard's third claw, the signals assaulting his brain like a thousand arrows. His arm shot right for a foot around the semicircle.

But no more.

With a roar and flames practically erupting from around his entire body, Charizard carried his opponent's arm from sin . 3/2, to cos 1, to tan . 3, to csc . 2, to sec -(2 . 3)/3...to cot 0(/-1)._*****_

"GROOOOOOOOOOO!!!" howled the other charizard in agony and horror as the back of his paw hit the stump. It didn't slam down, but it still went down hard. Charizard extended his neck and bugled in victory so loudly, the ground and the stump shook, as did the bodies of everyone around. A fierce Flamethrower shot twenty feet into the air. As soon as Charizard had released his paw, the bigger charizard stumbled back, grabbing his shoulder with a deathgrip. "OWOWOWOWOW-WOW!!" he complained.

Charla jumped and Slammed him in an angled spin, right in the head, making him emit a sound akin to a growl and a yip at the same time while he rocked sideways a bit. "Not as much 'ow' as Charizard's in!" she scolded, glaring. "Dirty rotten cheater!!" She then turned to Charizard, whose bravado and soul fire had died down to normal again while he whined slightly, holding his right paw gingerly. "Are you alright?" she asked, trotting over, concerned.

"Mark up seven in a row now, but otherwise, no," Charizard admitted, eyes clenched in pain as he leaned his head back and gritted his teeth again. "FUCK, but do I hurt like a mother!!"

"Hold still, lemme see," Charla said, taking his paw into her paws. She examined the third, "pinky" digit. It appeared to be crooked at one of the joints. The portion of claw after the kink appeared solid, though its owner did make a gravelly squeak when she ran her middle claw over it. "I don't think he broke it, Charizard," she said gently, putting her left paw on his shoulder and looking up at him. (Though they were similarly sized, his head was sky-high right now and she was bowing her head to look at the paw closely.) "It looks dislocated--the bones are out of joint. DON'T MOVE IT."

He opened an eye and gave a strained chuckle. "Heh...I may have five times more brawn than brain, but I'm not that meatheaded," he groaned.

"How the HELL did you DO that, shorty?!" hollered the loser, coming over with a paw on his shoulder still. A couple of flunkies were with him, both middle-height to him and Charizard. One was busy massaging his boss's arm, another was using his chin to massage his trapezius. "Your arm's way too skinny to have enough muscle to take me down!!"

"I'm as stubborn as a wall," Charizard answered, smirking. "The only way I'll give up is if I can't move an inch."

"Sure didn't look like that last week," the flunkie behind the big guy muttered.

"Th-That was different!!" fought back Charizard, clenching his right fist habitually. He immediately regretted it as his face blanched from pain, paling.

"Dammit, hold on, idjit," Charla grumbled, grabbing his paw. She uncurled the last digit, grabbed the affected part, and twisted and shoved it back into place.

_*POP!*_

"GRAAAUUUUGGHA!!" Charizard roared.

"Well, that's what you get for biting off more than you can chew," Charla told him, paws on hips and frown on her face.

Charizard whined a little as he, painfully, flexed his claw. "But you know I can't decline a challenge," he reasoned.

"You're a trainer's pokémon, but that doesn't mean you have to act like him..."

"Feh. You got lucky," the big one said, turning and walking off while looking over his aching shoulder.

Charla stuck her tounge at him after he turned back forwards. "Well, as you said, seven down," she sighed, looking at him.

He was gone.

"?!" THMP. An echo of two bodies colliding came to her ears. Worried he'd jumped after his opponent in rage and revenge for the claw, she looked at the bigger one. He was still walking on, no Charizard in sight. She then looked all around wildly. "Charizard?" she called.

"YOU FUCKING RETARD!!"

Charla whipped her head left, spread her wings, and dashed through the air down the slope to the rocky cliff face a bit away. "Uh-oh," she muttered. "What's wrong?" she called forwards as she saw Charizard.

The pokémon was lying on his back on the ground. He was grunting and pinning a shiny charizard of about his height and greater weight to himself. The shiny bore a cheated expression. "Let GO of me, DAMMIT!!" he roared, thrashing to get away. Charizard had his thick tail wrapped in his own to keep it from hitting him, juxtaposing his healthy tailflame with the other's sickly one.

"NOT UNTIL YOU TELL MY WHY THE HELL YOU WERE DOING THAT!!" Charizard roared through his teeth.

"What's going on??" demanded Charla, landing. Her bow bounced up and down a little as she did. She stopped and raised her eyeridges as she saw who Charizard was hugging with his best impression of Vicegrip. "Hey, aren't you...?"

Suddenly, the shiny stopped moving with a sigh. "..." He looked away, face fallen to the dirt beside him and nose (uncomfortably) right by Charizard's right armpit. He made no motion to move away, though. It was as if all of the will inside of him was down to a fraction of a unit amount.

Charizard glowered at him. "Well? Why?" he asked.

"...Leave me alone."

"Not until--"

"Just do it, Charizard," Charla said suddenly.

Charizard started, blinking at her, but loosened his grip. His stomach was freed from suffocation by the shiny's as he rolled away and got up. "But, Charla!" Charizard protested, getting up. He pointed at him. "He was falling down, arms behind his back, head-first, holding his wings to his back, and without a single effort to save himself!!" He stood and looked away. "He was...letting go..."

Charla gulped, shaken slightly. "Oh, my..." she whispered. She shook her head and looked at the shiny. He was trudging off, looking as if he would have put his paws in his pockets had he any. "Hey, please, come back here!" she called, reaching.

"It's pointless," Charizard said, though he didn't sound like he believed it. "He's...dammit, what's the word?"

"Emo?"

Charizard snapped his claws. "Emo, that's it," he confirmed. "Yeah, like those humans who act all sad to get attention. The scary thing, though, is for those around them--" He looked at the shiny. "--because they don't always know if they're faking it or not."

The shiny jumped and flew up to the top of the wall again, but he disappeared at the top and was unseen for some time.

Then, after the greyscaled** one was gone, Charizard hissed and clutched his right upper body, too. "Ooooh, and now I feel like my right side's encased in ice--and I don't mean it's cold," he grunted.

"Char-i-zard..."

**-*-**

Liza hummed to herself as she polished her carriage. "Gotta look good if I'm goin' up to Sinnoh for the Wharfton Cup and Empathy Festival!" she told herself. A pair of FWOOMs behind her alerted the young woman to two charizard landing. "Oh! Charizard, Charla!" she smiled. "What's up?"

The charizard looked at each other before Charla stepped forward and made sounds that said she wanted to say something.

Liza leaned against the carriage, crossing her arms across her boobs while holding her rag. "Go on," she said, interested expression on.

Charla cleared her throat before continuing to explain in her tongue while doing her best to do charades. She first opened her fist up, middle, first, last, to indicate the number 3, then she made the "sleeping" pose with two paws clapped together to be a pillow, then thumbed backwards.

"Three...nights...ago?"

Charla nodded, then pointed at the gates before acting very tired and panting.

Liza snapped her fingers, an idea of what's going on appearing across her face. "It's about the normal-sized shiny, ain't it?" she asked.

They both nodded. Charizard then pointed down and around, hoping that said it.

"Here? Right here? Um...now?" Charizard made the "go on" gesture though shaking his head, then pointed at the sun. "Today!" Proud nod.

Charizard then made his best impression of the apathetic male's expression. 'Pikachu's SO much better at this than I am...'

"The new shiny?"

Charizard then pointed to a nearby clifftop before wearing the same expression and walking forwards. He then clasped his wings to his back, jumped, turned, and landed on his back pretty hard, landing shoulders first. Charla winced.

Liza widened her eyes. "He...He jumped off a cliff...?" she tried.

Charizard got up with a somber nod, but then pointed to himself. He hooded his eyes at the cliff, looking interested, then widened his eyes and mouthed, quite visibly, "Oh, shi--" before he made a quick dash forward, wings out to let him glide, at top speed. He glided around a loop to return in front of her. Meanwhile, Charla was setting up the same "he jumped" sequence. Charizard got near them before quickly rolling to his back and catching the falling Charla, sending him slamming down and skidding on his back.

"You caught him, Charizard?" Liza asked.

Both nodded at her, serious faces on.

Liza sighed in relief, putting a hand to her chest. "Oh, thank goodness," she breathed, slumping down a bit. "I was certain he'd...I knew he was troubled, from his words, but...suicide?..."

Both charizard came up again and came over. They looked questioningly at her.

"What to do..." Liza crossed her arms again, standing straight as she bowed her head in thought. "...Keep an eye on him, for one," she said, looking up. "Make sure he doesn't try and hurt himself. Charizard, you keep after him. I'm sure Charla will be fine without you," she chuckled, smirking. Charizard and Charla blushed, both looking affronted. She shook her head. "Also, I swear I heard him speak Human when I was helping him. Convince him to come and see me somehow. Go, now."

The charizard nodded before Charizard took off. Charla stayed, looking after him.

"I hope he'll be okay," Liza said quietly, turning around to the carriage. "Until then, Charla, help me with this, would you?" She kicked a bucket with a rag and some solution to her. Charla groaned and slumped in defeat before walking over.

**-*-**

The shiny plodded along the cliffs. He had another, larger armful of berries which was quickly disappearing down his gullet, three at a time as he devoured his late lunch. He hopped over gaps or glided, walking along to find somewhere to sit. He eventually made it to the cliff bridge Charizard's home was at. He blinked as he noticed this before sighing.

"Eat up, fatso! Ha-ha!" a charizard pointed as it went past.

The shiny looked back at it, expression in its neutral pose, before looking at his food. With a humph, he polished off all eight whole. He groaned in pain as the lump slowly made its way down his long throat. He made a face that said he was thinking, 'Not the smartest thing to do,' as he massaged his neck. He shook his head and sat down near the edge.

It didn't take long before he heard a massive WHAM! behind him and felt a prickly shockwave pass through him. He saw the shadow of a huge charizard over him. "Leave me alone," he said in Charizard before the charizard could say anything.

The charizard, easily twelve feet tall minus tail, scoffed. "Yeah, right, not until you get out of the way, fatass," he said.

"Please."

"HAH!" The charizard shook his head, crossing his arms. "Please? What a wussie! You don't get by with 'please' here! It's mon-eat-mon, you overfed housepet!"

This caused a twitch of the shiny's tail.

The other charizard noticed this and smirked. "Ooooh, hit a nerve, have I?" he asked. "Yeah! You're just an animal slave to humans to laze around the house all day, never doing anything worthwhile!" He pointed as he continued his stream of insults. "Are you listening? You deaf, now, too, dullard? Or are you just waiting for another earthquake from your little-snorlax's-gut of a belly? Yeah, I know you liked that! I heard it all the way from my cave on the other side of the cliff!"

"Please leave me alone," repeated the shiny when he heard him take a breath.

"There's no such thing as being left alone! There's always gonna be someone pissing you off, so get used to it, you dumbass! Why the hell are you here, anyway? You thought you could make it out here? Sure, go ahead, see how good you are after being taken along on a half-end-of-week camping trip and getting lost in the woods! Betcha never taken a dump in the mountains, eh? Scared? Want your precious privacy?" ((This begs the question: Where the heck would large pokémon like charizard go to the bathroom, in the yard? A litter box? The park? Imagine having to pick up after THAT behemoth...And -I- hate cleaning after Owen (black lab)...))

"Yes, so please leave me be," the shiny answered quietly.

"Leave you alone, again! Knock it off, you're as annoying as a pichu who ate a few coffee beans! Go back to your own kind, you loser! You don't belong here! You can't survive just by coming in here and acting all emo, trying to get sympathy to make up for being overweight and inept. I mean, c'mon, nobody buys that crap..."

Meanwhile, Charizard was flying back towards home. 'Still haven't seen him...or his body,' he thought worriedly. 'Easy on patience he's not, but a living being he is.' He began to think about all of the things he had thought about the night before. '...He's being picked on, he can't find a place to fit in--I think, since I think he went to the springs recently because of how warm and wet he was when I caught him--and he's small...' He shuddered in realization. "He's kinda like how I was," he said softly. New sympathy brewed within him. 'I hope I don't regret caring for him, now...' He scanned around. Then, the sound of a deep, jeering charizard's voice came to his ears. "Groo?" he went. After hearing more, he sweatdropped. 'Groo-ooh...It's Ralboar," he named, "the 'mon who is in the humans' dictionary under 'hot air'...Who's he insulting now?' When he saw who, coming up to him, he gasped. "There you are!" he called in an inside voice, talking more to himself. "I'd better save him..." He began to circle down.

Ralboar was finishing up his stream of fat jokes. "...And let's not forget that you probably broke the second floor of your house, pet boy!" he rounded off (n.p.i.).

"Leave me alone, please," was all that the shiny had to say still.

Ralboar growled and stamped his foot. "What, AGAIN?! What is it that humans say...broken record? Yeah, you're a broken record! Is that all you can do? Say to leave you alone? So you can do what, jack off or something vulgar? What CAN you do? You're just a stupid domestic piece of crap, someone who probably evolved purely by eating rare candy from your rich-ass human family! Can you do ANYTHING worthwhile? APART from tell me to go away? I bet you can't, loser. I guess the only thing you can do is eat like there's no tomorrow, since you'd probably had to in order to get that thing you're CARESSING there. You probably have trouble just getting to sleep--you need your human 'mommy' to sing a lullaby to you! It's a wonder you got up here, that you even know how to fly, especially with all that you've got there. And then all you do is sit and stare and go off into your own little world! WORTHLESS, that's what you are! Have you ever even TRIED to battle? I bet you've never even breathed an inch of flame in your life! No wonder your tailflame's so low, you don't use it, even! Or maybe it's because you're embarrassed, yeah! Because you're so overweight, you'll be wheezing after one breath! HAH! You can't blow worth crap, and you know it, and I'm surprised you can even breathe normally without pas--"

Suddenly, as Charizard was about to open his mouth to roar out to Ralboar to stop, the shiny got up, turned, and grabbed the lowered open jaws of the larger charizard in half a second. With a mighty swing, he threw the other charizard over his head to slam his footpaws hard on the top side of the cliff edge he'd been facing before and was again now. He lifted the other's head, jaw being held open with an iron grip, above his, arms unyielding against the larger's efforts. His face was now one of anger, though you could only tell from somewhat narrowed eyeridges and a frown. The shiny quickly took in a HUMONGOUS breath, so big his chest seemed to swell enough to match his belly, before he made a tight hole in his lips and blew a stream of fire directly up into the throat of Ralboar, to the surprise and confusion of both normally-colored charizard.

"What the hell is he--?!" Charizard muttered. He breifly wondered if he should stop him. '...Wait. Our bodies are made to be repellant to heat with a passion. Ralboar should be able to stand it. Besides, dullard's finally standing up for himself...but why is he...WHAT is he...?'

The answer to the last question came soon. Ralboar was doing his best to stop him, to fight free, making aggrivated and confused sounds, but the shiny kept blowing. And blowing. And blowing. 'There is no way he is doing this all on one breath!' Charizard thought. He wasn't. He was puffing his cheeks up hugely, filling his mouth with air, and deflating it at some times while still blowing before re-inflating them. Behind the fwoosh of flame, one could hear him taking in a sharp breath of air through his nostrils whenever his cheeks shrank.

He was circular breathing like a pro.

Then, about five seconds after the flaming began, Ralboar grunted as he felt something--a stretching pain at his stomach, both inside and out. He glanced down and widened his eyes in absolute horror. Before his very eyes, cartoonishly, his belly was swelling. His sounds of anger and confusion turned to worry and distress. He fought harder, but to no avail.

Charizard gaped and stalled into a hover near the entrance to his cave. "You're FUCKING me!" he shouted. "That even POSSIBLE?!"

"What the--?! Hey, what's going on up there??" Liza called, and Charizard looked left. She was running along with Charla, who flew before and above her.

"Is WHAT even possible, Charizard?" Charla asked.

"You won't believe me unless you look for yourself, but remember those stories about Team Rocket I've told you?" Charizard asked as she came up.

"Yeah?" she asked. She turned and looked for a second. "What about?" She turned back to face Charizard.

As Charla did a double-take, eyes bugging out, Charizard pointed to Ralboar, then the shiny, and said, "There's your Meowth balloon, and there's the flame."

Liza skidded to a halt and squawked in utter disbelief, "WHAT IN THE WORLD?!" as she noticed a round increase in cream-colored flesh on Ralboar.

By now, Ralboar was finding the warm, light air crawling along his tail, or at least the base, as the hide on his front stretched and swelled. It wasn't fun. He was thrashing about in pain and panic, eyes starting to tear up. But to no avail was he--it was as if he were being held by a robot to a wide-flamed blowtorch. The shiny remained of unchanging expression, continuing his flaming.

A minute into the inflation, and Ralboar's front was pressing against the shiny's, pushing him away and off the edge bit by bit, and fifteen seconds later, he was off...and slightly floating. The lighter-than-air inside of him was so high in volume, it was beginning to support his weight. His unbelieveably surrealistically round front had expanded to include his chest a bit, by the same principle as his tail base on the underside. He was waving his legs around, thrashing his tail, but the base of the tail became harder to manipulate, and he was running out of room for his legs to move.

More charizard came to watch the spectacle, transfixed. Charizard, Charla, and Liza remained still, transfixed on the ground and in the air (though the cliff was soon the spot for the pokémon as their hovering had become a slow descent).

By now, Ralboar was crying, tears dripping down onto the shiny's face. He was floating freely, like a big, almost-perfectly-round blimp, and his arms were being pushed away from his assailant. His neck was straightening upwards more, making it easier for the hot air to enter in. After a ripping pain from an ominous creak, Ralboar whined higher than any charizard could ever believe their kind could go and clasped his paws in begging.

The shiny stopped...and took another big breath before continuing. The extra force made Ralboar go faster towards Goodyear status.

The creak snapped Charizard and Charla, as well as Liza, out of their stupor. "We've got to stop him!" Charla cried, taking a step.

"NO! He's too big to go near!" Charizard shouted, grabbing her arm.

"But he'll DIE if we don't stop this!" she protested, turning back to Charizard. "We're pokémon, not balloon animals!!"

"I know, but that's exactly it," Charizard said. "We'd better find cover when he goes--if shiny there doesn't stop..."

Entire front and some of his tail bulging like a squeezed water balloon ready to burst, Ralboar was about to reach true blimp size, almost as big as the elder of the shinys in the springs. He was pouring tears and bawling as best he could, but still the shiny blew. A full three minutes had elapsed.

His face had been focused on exhaling flame, eyes locked with Ralboar's, for the entire time, barely blinking. But now, the shiny looked at his work with his eyes. He looked back at Ralboar, gave a last burst of fire, then abruptly snapped both his and his own mouth shut. He pushed him off and pulled himself up using the extended head, winging the rest of the way up, as he flapped a couple times over. Then, swooping his body under him, tail below, he landed with a bounce or three on the back of Ralboar the blimp.

A few uncertain seconds passed. Ralboar whined a little, scared, eyes clenched. His body creaked.

But nothing happened.

"Leave me alone, please," the shiny said in Charizard calmly, audible in the silence.

Within seconds, every single charizard except Charla and Charizard was gone.

Charizard gaped, then snorted and held his mouth. He snorted again. And then he began laughing his head off.

Charla looked at him in disgust. "What the hell you laughing for?!" she demanded. "He almost DIED, and quite messily, too!"

"Yeah?" Charizard asked between laughs. "Rr-rr-rr-rr!! R-rr! I'm sorry, but you have to admit, he go-hot what he deserves!"

"What he...?!"

"Isn't Ralboar the biggest bag of hot air in the Charicific Valley??" asked Charizard, holding his sides.

At this, Charla widened her eyes, looked at Ralboar, and couldn't help bursting into mirth, herself.

Liza was, sadly, out of the loop. "HEY! QUIT LAUGHING AND GET THAT GUY BEFORE HE KILLS THE POOR THING!!" she roared up at the two.

Charizard recovered before Charla, and sighed, wiping a tear away. "Phew...that was way too tense," he said. He shook his head and jogged out to take off. He winged up to Ralboar's face and stopped. He smirked and crossed his arms. "What have we learned?" he asked.

Ralboar, looking like he was a little in shock, blinked numerous times. "Um..." He was speechless.

Charizard shook his head and flew up on top of him. The shiny was facing the hanging tail, looking at the setting sun. He was quiet and crossing his arms, leaning forwards a little and resting slightly on his own front. Ralboar's legs were partially sucked into the balloon front. Overflow front was swollen up on either side of him, giving Charizard enough space to land next to him. He, too, bounced a little. A wind came from the east, propelling the inflated Fire-type out a bit. Below, Liza yelled and turned to follow, yelling something about him floating away from the valley. Charizard looked around, barely believing what he was doing. "I'm on top of a charizard who's half pokémon, half poké float," he said. "You do this after trying to kill yourself and proving that a rumbling stomach can, indeed, cause real rumbling. Kid, you're crazy, you know that?" He smiled as he looked over at the shiny.

"Leave me alone," was the standard response. Not even a look. His face had returned to its neutral position.

Charizard sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't," he said softly. "You're too interesting. I'm not here to insult you, trust me."

"...You sure didn't want to be near me before."

"Well, I'm scared sitting next to you, now that I saw what you did," Charizard admitted, sweatdropping. 'I am SO not good at this.' His curiosity made him tilt his head. "How'd you do that, anyway?"

Within seconds, he was suddenly Flamethrowering to combat the shiny's as he, too, was caught in a lock. He didn't know how to circular breathe, though, and lost to the slightly smaller one's surprisingly powerful lungs.

"CHARIZARD!!" Charla cried. She had been flying in gentle pursuit. She winged forwards to get there.

Charizard grunted and wildly shook his paw, looking with his eyes back at her. 'He'll do it to you, too!' he wanted to say. The feeling of pain and stretching reached his stomach as he, too, began to bloat. 'Shit, I ain't gonna be a balloon, too!' He thought as fast as he could.

He noticed that he still had time before he got too big, though that was running out. He also noticed he was on a very bouncy surface. So, with all of his might, he jumped away, using his strength to tear away. He did--only to get a tail stuck up his throat and the heat manually cranked up. He was also grabbed again. "Gruaa!" he gagged/yelled before narrowing his eyeridges. He tried to say, "Bad idea," but it didn't work. So, he clamped down. VERY. HARD.

The shiny winced, but kept at it.

'I can do this! This isn't his specialty!' Charizard had to hurry, though--he was inflating faster, now that there was a constant stream of more fire, and thus more hot air. He felt his insides warm up in a way that humans can relate to with swallowing a hot-to-very-warm mouthful of tea, cider, or hot cocoa. He clamped harder, turning Bite to Crunch, and used the chance to fight back with fire, too, working to bring as much pain as possible and hoping the shiny's determination wasn't as strong as his.

The shiny winced tighter, then moaned in pain.

Charizard grabbed and twisted the tail with all his might, digging his claws in.

Finally, with a roar of agony, the shiny's grip slackened. A second later, he was pinned onto Ralboar. Charizard peeked over his twice-sized front to his adversary. "Just tell me--WHY inflation, of all things?!" he asked, grunting to keep the charizard down.

As expected, the shiny stopped struggling and sighed. "Just leave me alone, please," he said quietly. "Please. That's all I ask."

Charizard risked getting off of him. He found he could move still, but with a little more difficulty. Part of this difficulty was the tremendous boon to his flying--having a large bag of hot air on his body helped him to move through the air higher and easier. He had to flap a couple times to catch up after this and the bouncy terrain almost sent him flying off. The shiny got up and sat as he normally did. Charizard sat a bit in front of him, but didn't block his view of the sunset. "...I'm a lot like you, you know," he said after a bit.

The shiny scoffed. "Don't. That's cruel. You have NO idea what the hell I've been through," he said.

Charizard scoffed back. "No idea?!" he repeated, raising an eyeridge. "I've been through battles like you've never seen! I've almost DIED thanks to being frozen in a block of ice! I've survived an abusive trainer AND an inept one! Well, formerly inept. And I've had to come here and get embarassingly defeated by the former smallest charizard and the gentlest charizard here, barely be able to get in, then get picked on, beaten to a pulp, and scorned by everyone--even poachers who came to steal everyone here! Yeah, even this tailhole," he added, patting their floor.

("..." went said floor.)

The shiny looked at Charizard midway through the last list. "...You still have no clue," he said. "You'd never understand." He looked forwards again. "Unless you had friends before here, like me."

"I did and still do," Charizard said, putting a paw to his front. He took a second to curiously press down on the big bubble he had now before getting back to business. "I'm not wild--I'm a trainer's pokémon. I was abandoned by my first one, then I was caught by my current one. He left me here because I wanted to get stronger here. I had friends apart from him, too--his other pokémon and his human companions. If he needs me, I'll be there."

"You still won't understand," the shiny said. "You have friends you can go back to. I can never go back." He readjusted his grip on his hug.

"Why not?" asked Charizard.

"They'll never be able to accept me for who I am anymore. I'm so different now."

Charizard shook his head. "No, they'll just have to deal with who you are and appreciate who you've become," he fought, serious look on his face. "I was happy-go-lucky as a charmander, but I changed upon evolving into a charmeleon. I didn't listen to my trainer, less even after I evolved to kick this aerodactyl's tail, and I became the lazy, battle-crazy jerk I am today. And, even though I didn't think so at first, he still cared for me. It was because he stayed by my side when I was frozen in that block of ice that I grew to respect him and understand that he still likes me. And besides, I'm still pretty carefree. That proves you can't change yourself entirely. There's still something that SOMEone will like about you left after you evolved!" He spread his arms to gesticulate at this last one.

"You just won't understand, dammit!" the shiny raised his voice, looking at Charizard. "You'll never understand! We're too different! You WANTED to evolve, and you did without a hitch! You never had the life I did! You never had the kind of friends I did! And you WANTED to come here!!" He turned around again. "...Leave me--"

"NO!" Charizard interrupted, leaning forwards and narrowing his eyeridges as he put a paw on the shiny's shoulder. "Not anymore! You've had your chance to think by yourself. Now it's time that we help you! Something's wrong, and I want to help you." His expression, in a rare event, softened. "Please. I don't do this often, but you're something else. You need help. Something happened and you're keeping it in, which is very bad, you know that. You're hurting. And if THIS doesn't say you need to vent, then I don't know what would," he added, indicating the new states he and Ralboar were in as the "this". "Please..." He smiled. "I want to be your friend."

"..." The shiny looked at him for a few seconds. He then finally looked forwards. "...Who the hell do you think you are, Dr. Phil?"

"No, I think I'm Charizard, the victim of an emo inflationist," Charizard replied, tapping his front with his clawPAD, not tip, for fear he might hurt himself. His body made a hollow tumping sound.

Ralboar had drifted off to the part of the valley, bouncing off walls on the way, where Liza's hut was. The wind finally ended. Ralboar managed to flap in a braking direction, though his face was still in a bit of shock. He had made no complaints, however, yet.

The shiny rested his head on his stomach. "Charizard? That's it?" he asked. "That's pretty creative."

"I don't remember the name my mother gave me as a hatchling before I was separated," Charizard said softly. "So shut up."

The shiny widened his eyes. "You..." He looked over. "You never knew your mother...?" he asked almost too softly to hear.

Charizard looked away, his turn to be silent.

The shiny looked down at himself, then forwards again. "...Charlie."

"Charlie?"

"Pacific. Charlie Pacific." He held his right paw out and said, in flawless Human, "Bonjour, M. Charizard," without looking.

Charizard blinked, then reached around his front and shook paws. "Erm...Hi?" he said back, sweatdropping.

"Hope you're ready for a long story," Charlie said in Charizard, withdrawing his paw. He smirked, which made him look so much better. "And I've got enough air to power a small town."

"""_I'll_ say,""" said the other three charizard in proximity before Charla laughed.

"Honestly, why INFLATION?!" asked Charizard, standing up and stretching. He grunted in surprise as he stood up so fast, he accidentially jumped. Charlie grabbed his foot and pulled him back down again.

"It's just what suddenly popped into my head, that's all," Charlie replied. "Besides, I've always wanted to try it, watching cartoons and all. Surprised it works, but not really. I mean, admit it--if pokémon could be tri-types, we'd be Fire-/Flying-/Dragon-types. And you have to know how easily dragons can get...well." He looked distantly at his stomach, gripping it tightly and digging his claws into the white flesh.

"It's for the really tough times," explained/defended Charizard, chuckling with a fist on his hip. "Like, really-cold-winter tough times. Dragon-types are weak against Ice, remember?"

"I know, I know," he said, grunting and standing up. "You guys could just burp and let it all out anytime, you know. You'll never stop if you don't, since you're Fire-types and will keep it warm." He turned and strode over slowly. "Just be sure to grab something if you don't want to REALLY make like a balloon and zoom."

Charizard laughed. "More reason to get home first," he said. "I'll grab the walls." He stepped over to Ralboar's head and crouched, concerned look on his face.

"I'm not the least bit sorry for this, you know," Charlie said, crossing his arms. "It was very sweet revenge. Just be lucky you're still alive. It was I-can-sit-on-you or bust--literally."

"And I don't have too much sympathy," added Charizard. "'Cept that you've got to be in pain."

"Actually, not really," came the reply. Ralboar seemed a bit calmer--more than ever, actually. "It stopped being painful a little bit after it ended. Now I feel really relaxed. I bet it's the warmth, but I want to think it's the free floating. I think I know how a cloud feels, now!" He actually smiled.

Charlie, Charizard, and, landing beside them, Charla, all sweatdropped. """Uuuuuhhh...""" they all went. Then Charlie smirked and shook his head. "Clouds are wet, and I don't think you'd want to be wet."

"Aww! Hey! Thanks for killing my buzz!" complained Ralboar, growling behind him.

"Just deflate before you blow away. I'm weird, I know, but this was weird even for me, truthfully," Charlie said. He looked at Charizard and smiled. "So, your place or mine or your girlfriend's or her owner's?" He said this loudly in Human, knowing full-well who was below, while indicating: Pointing at Charizard, thumbing himself, pointing a bit left at Charla, and thumbing sideways and down to the right to Liza, all nice and connected.

"OWNER'S! OWNER'S!" came Liza's choice.

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!!" Charizard roared, face glowing red.

"He's just my bodyguard!!" Charla defended, face equally red.

"And my place," Charizard added. "C'mon." He spread his wings and kicked off, letting a surprised yelp as he rocketed off.

"Careful," called Charlie. "Physics like to screw around with people." He shook his head and jumped down, spreading his wings and flapping, as well. Charla was close behind.

"Take care!" merrily bid a smiling Ralboar with a raised paw, making Charizard ask Charlie if he was sure he didn't do something to his head, as well (to which Charlie shrugged).

_"**HEY!!** C'mon, I thought you were taking him to see me!!"_ Liza waved her arms and protested as they went off.

**- - -**

Thank you very much, anyone who read this chapter entirely and suffered the strangeness. (And if you just skipped the author's note at the top, don't flame me for how weird (only if I put sexual stuff in) it was, since I warned you!) Also, some footnotes:

**_*_** Anyone remember their unit circle? I'm refering to the coordinates, so I probably should've said sin^-1 or arcsin and such. But, anyway, for non-Math buffs (or for anyone who isn't Sho Minamimoto), the translation is that he went from, in degrees, 60 to 90 to 120 to 135 to 150 and finally to 180. (This is since he was using his right arm, and so horizontally on the back of it would be 0 degrees. On the front (palm side) it is 180, since he went that many degrees from 0. Of course, the length of his arm was the unit for this unit circle.) Sorry if the bit of Math confused folks! *nervous smile/sweatdrop*

** I know he's black-scaled, but I said _greyscaled_, not _grey**-**scaled_. Ah, the difference hyphens can actually make sometimes!! :D

Now, for any furs who read this and are very happy, sorry to burst your bubble (ha-ha-ha), but this is the most of this stuff you'll be seeing. For any non-furs, I apologize if this chapter disturbed you and understand if you don't want to read any more (though the weirdness will be just a _molecule_ above the normal amount for my stories from here on). I just hope that everyone found some enjoyment in this chapter (despite the emoness of Charlie). I can't wait to recall what's supposed to happen next! *nervous smile/sweatdrop again*


	2. Conversation

*******The following is a summary of what happened in the last chapter, and has been written for those who did not wish to brave the unimaginable weirdness of the previous chapter. Those who DID brave it, unless you want a refresher (or you know you did read it, but you repressed the details into your subconscious :P), skip this part. It ends in the next three-asterisk-bookended note. The summary begins now.*******

One stormy night, Liza, the human who keeps other humans from disturbing the Charicific Valley, was out to close the gates when she encountered a black-scaled, red-winged and -eyed, and white-undersided (in other words, a shiny) charizard--one who spoke--in very a poor state (but very good health, if his stomach meant anything). After he got better, he decided not to leave, but to stay. His personality was very sad, closed, and--sorry to say--pretty emo.

The shiny was jeered by other charizard for being small, a shiny, and overweight, but he gave no sign of paying attention. He sat alone near the entrance of a cave that happened to be owned by Charizard (as in, Ash's Charizard), who shooed him off (with an almost instant result, to his surprise) after returning from breakfast. The shiny went not far away and sat down again, fighting (literally and in terms of will and movement) his stomach. His stomach fought back, growling so loud that the pebbles around the shiny rattled.

Charizard later defeated an opponent and talked with Charla, then came back to his den. He tried to get some sleep, but the shiny's growling stomach proved itself to be either transplanted from a snorlax or just plain scary. Its volume and power bothered Charizard enough to yell at the shiny, telling him to get something to eat. The shiny sort of refused, apparently thinking that starving himself would rid him of his detested belly. After the bout of stomach complaints receded to more-minor ones, in order to stop the growling, Charizard went and got a large piece of meat for the shiny, who begrudgingly ate it.

That night, it rained again, and Charizard saw the shiny getting into his cave after he saw Charla safely home. After receiving a look from behind dead eyes, the orange Fire-type starter let the black Fire-type starter in, but just for that night.

The next morning, the shiny, after getting an armful of berries for breakfast in an effort to keep his weight (and stomach growling) down, trekked to the near-boiling hot springs where the rare shiny charizard were. He secluded himself in a corner and sat again, doing nothing once more but wallow in his mysterious depression. He even let the water wash over him and his tail fire (which was always frighteningly low) when the largest charizard in the valley, the elder shiny, cannonballed off of his high perch into the center of the hot springs. After awaking and finding himself atop a much larger version of his personal parasitic enemy, this one belonging to the kind and concerned elder, he ran away.

Charizard, meanwhile, managed to defeat a many-times-his-size charizard in an arm wrestling match, albiet earning a dislocated digit in the process (Charla fixed that, though). While walking and talking with Charla, he spotted the shiny falling off of a cliff without any sign that he wanted to save himself. So, Charizard dash-flew over and barely rescued him. He pinned him to himself (him on the ground and the shiny on top of him) and asked why he was doing that (his curiosity and concern were nagging him) when Charla came to the shiny's rescue, so to speak.

After that, Charizard and Charla came to Liza and pantomimed their plight. They agreed to take the shiny to her--she wanted to speak to him, anyway.

Later on in the day, after swallowing almost his entire berry lunch whole (which he regretted after swallowing, thanks to the pain it created), the shiny sat near the edge of a cliff. Behind him landed a notorious bully of the valley, Ralboar. Ralboar commenced a stream of insults, living up to his nickname as the biggest bag of hot air in the valley. Charizard saw this and tried to come to the rescue, but was too late.

After being insulted for his breathing skills, the shiny grabbed Ralboar, swung him around, and, taking in a great breath of air, blew powerful fire into Ralboar's mouth. This didn't hurt the other lizard that much, at least not until the hot air began to accumulate in his stomach. To Charizard's shock and amazement, as if it were a cartoon (well, a western one), Ralboar was being inflated like a balloon! Furthermore, the shiny's grip was ironly holding his mouth open and his breath was infinite, thanks to the fact that he was actually doing perfect circular breathing (the hard-earned and, to some, invaluable ability to blow a stream of air continuously by making use of one's nose and mouth)--and he wasn't stopping, no matter how much he was pleaded with. It appeared as if he were intent on making the bully explode.

Charizard landed from circling and could do nothing but watch Ralboar's hide stretch out to blimp-like proportions and his distress grow more and more. Charla and Liza came, and Charla went ahead of her Trainer to Charizard. He kept her from doing anything because he was afraid that Ralboar would explode any moment, and didn't want her caught in the bloody blast. (The other charizard gathered around to watch in disgust, amazement, horror, and a little humor, made no move to help, either.) Thankfully, the shiny gave one last burst of flame before stopping and helping himself to a seat atop his victim (who had now lived up to his nickname as the biggest bag of hot air in the valley both figuratively AND literally). Ralboar was in shock and did nothing but float with the wind. The other charizard flew away, fearing they were next, but Charizard, even more concerned than ever, bravely flew to the shiny.

He attempted a conversation with him, but was soon being blown up, as well. Thankfully, he was able to break away and, after getting a tailflame shoved up his throat and cranked to max, nearly snap the shiny's tail in two with his jaws, and was therefore spared (not unscathed, but he wasn't worried about that). Then, he was able to speak with the young shiny more, and eventually gained some trust--enough to get a name: Charlie.

After Charla joined them, they left for Charizard's cave to hear Charlie's story. (Ralboar, coming out of shock, said he actually didn't mind, now that his distention's initial occurrence was over and his hide was getting used to it. In fact, he said he thought he felt the way clouds do. The strangeness was defused when Charlie commented that clouds are wet, something charizard don't want to be.) Liza was unhappy with the fact she wasn't going to be able to speak to Charlie as planned.

*******This ends the summary. Now, let's get to the chapter and see why the heck Charlie is one weird wyrm!*******

***'*,*'* Chapter Two - Conversation *'*,*'***

Charizard let Charlie and Charla into his cave first. Charlie went to the corner he inhabited the night before and Charla went to a spot between him and where Charizard was going to be. Charizard himself tried to get in, but found himself in a pinch--literally. "Ngh!?" he grunted as he suddenly stopped mid-step into his den.

Charlie, sitting as he did before, looked up with a questioning face. "'Ngh'?" he repeated. He then covered his snout, blushing as he muffled a laugh. "Oh..."

Charla looked and let herself rumble. "Aw, is Charizard so big he's stuck?" she asked, playfully jeering.

Charizard half-eyed and growled, "No, it's just that my entrance--is--smaller!" He pushed with each word. On the last, he pushed with all his might, legs and tail and arms pushing, neck straight, head up, teeth gritted, eyes clenched. "NNNNNNNNN-GHAH!" With an extended grunt that finished off in a relieved breath, he was able to POP! himself in.

His troubles weren't over yet, however--he now found himself sailing for his wall. "GROOOOOO--!!" he yelled, eyes wide before he braced for impact. Grunting and "Rack!"ing with each one, he bounced five or six times around his den before finally rolling to a stop to the wall near the bed of stone he sleeps on, halting upside-down and seething at the two other charizard, both of whom were laughing their tails off. "CAN IT," he ordered through gritted, sharp teeth.

After he rolled 180 degrees over sideways and scooted forth a foot or two and the other ones were calmed down, Charizard rested an arm on his front and gesticulated with his other one. "Alright, Charlie, come closer and then tell us what in the world's the matter with you if you're willing to make living poké floats," he said, smirking wryly and tapping his front.

"Alright," he said, still slightly reluctant as he stood and walked over. He raised an eyeridge. "You can just burp to let that out, if you want," he reminded Charizard, cocking his head and crossing his arms.

"Yeah, I think he said that before we got here," Charla added, looking at her bodyguard normally as she moved closer to him. "Why put yourself through that humiliation that so entertained us a minute ago?"

Charizard crossed his arms and closed his eyes, blushing furiously as he said, a little curtly, "Well, I-I'll admit, Ralboar's right--this...doesn't feel uncomfortable anymore. Besides, I feel lazy and I don't want to burp that much air out. That's just a little gross." He wrinkled his snout at this, sweatdropping despite himself.

"But it's FUN! And funny," insisted Charlie, chuckling as he came near the other two and forming a triangle with them. He sat as he always did, tail in front of him. His tailflame was flickering slightly higher than normal.

Charizard shook his head. "Later, alright? Besides, this is new, and it's useful to have a nice place to rest my arms while sitting and listening to your sob story," he added, opening his eyes again and doing so. He looked interestedly at Charlie and motioned with a paw. "Well? Go on."

"Yes, please, start," Charla said gently, smiling amiably at him. "I want to know why you've done this, too."

Charlie sighed and lowered his head, closing his eyes. He was silent for a moment before nodding. "Alright, I have to tell SOMEbody, SOMEtime, so..." He looked up, resolute faced. "Now's better than later." He cleared his throat, rested his arms on his own frontal sphere, and began. "Alright, you guys heard me speak Human back there, right?" Nods. "Wanna know how I could do it?"

"What, you actually a human in disguise?" asked Charla, laughing on her words.

Charlie planed a paw.

Charizard scoffed. "Very funny, but really, why?" he asked.

Charlie cut a look at him. "I can make you bigger, you know," he threatened. "I have GREAT range."

"And I can kick your tail any day of the week," Charizard fought back, half-eyeing and crossing his arms.

Charlie groan-sighed and drooped his head before shaking it and saying, "Nevermind." Looking up again, he looked serious. "I'm being honest--you're pretty close, um..."

"Charla," Charla supplied, smiling and putting a paw on her chest, nodding. Her bow bobbed.

Charlie smiled and nodded. "Charla, you're pretty close," he continued. Looking serious again, he looked at both of them. "I'm telling you, I'm being completely truthful here, but I'm not actually a pokémon. At least...I wasn't..." He started to look away, but stopped himself and looked back again, clenching a fist resolutely. "I was originally a human, which also explains my having a last name...or are those fairly common with pokémon?" he asked, tilting his head.

Charizard and Charla slowly looked at each other, eyeridges up. "You think he'd act like this?" Charla asked.

"Nope," Charizard returned, shaking his head. He looked back. "No, last names are uncommon among pokémon," he said. "We usually have titles--for instance, Ralboar's 'full name'," he quoted with two claws in each paw, "is Ralboar the Hot Air Bag--something that is probably going to be permanent from here on." He half-eyed and smirked wryly, sweatdropping.

"Trainers' pokémon's titles usually change, too," Charla continued. "We keep our old ones, though, officially. My name is Charla the Kind of Liza."

"And I'm Charizard the Rebel of Ash," Charizard formally introduced, bowing his head. He smirked again. "I think you're gonna get a new name, yourself--Charlie the Inflater!!"

Charlie sweatdropped and started, making an unpleasantly surprised noise, "UwwEEEHH-eeh!!" His eyes bulged as he shook his head and paws, going, "Hell no, HELL no!! I AIN'T gonna be called that, no way on EARTH!" He stopped as they continued to laugh at him and sighed. "Well, if anything, I suppose I'd be Charlie Pacific of the Low Metabolism, or Charlie Pacific the Lardtail, or..." He trailed off, looking unhappily at his gut.

Charla frowned. "Aww, those aren't very nice," she said. "Don't you have any qualities or abilities that are unique to you that you like?"

He looked away. "Well...I..." He sighed. "Okay, this kinda leads into where I wanted to start my story, so..." He looked up again and readjusted his arms. "Alright. I was an incoming high school senior at my school all the way in Sinnoh when it happened."

""SINNOH?!"" repeated both of the normal charizard, gawking. "You're from all that way? How'd you get here, flying?" asked Charizard in awe.

Charlie nodded. "With lots of rests, though one night I had to go over an ocean and thought I'd die of exhaustion," he added. "But that's getting ahead. Right now, we're starting in Evertown, a place barely big enough to have a noticeable high school. The sun was pretty hot that day, but I didn't care--I couldn't care, I was so busy focusing..."

**-*-*-***

_Tok, tok, tok, t-t-t-_"MOVE!"

_Tok, tok, tok, tok..._

"*pant pant*"

_T-t-t-_"HOLD!" _Tok, tok, tok, t-t-t-tok!_

"...Alright, tubas, let's fix this here..."

"...Phew, this is hard!" said a boy with a trumpet and a tan-grey-blue striped beanie over shaggy black hair. He had a roundish face with some freckles and relaxed green eyes. He wore a yellow t-shirt, black cargo shorts, and a pair of sandals that were basically half shoe, they covered so much. He was looking to the right.

"I know, and our fashion sense isn't making things any easier," chuckled a girl with a relatively skinny black cloth scarf around her neck. She had medium brunette hair and a nice face, if a little bit pale, and average-sized, gem-like, violet eyes. She had a pair of imitation diamond earrings on. She wore a black v-neck with an exclamation point in white on the back and front, a green miniskirt, and dark green sneakers. She looked left.

"You guys are such wussies when it comes to heat," I chided, looking left and then right. When I was human, I had black, messy semi-short hair, red, large eyes, a pretty pronounced chin, and NO excess body fat. My outfit included a white t-shirt, a black short-sleeved button-up shirt with some red tribal designs on the lower hem over it, black biker gloves, black baggy jeans, a red belt, and dark grey skater shoes, tied with white laces and tight enough that I could run with them.

It was the first rehearsal day after our week of Band Camp ended. And it was HOT. We were out marching the drill with instruments, getting things fixed. The blacktop of the parking lot radiated the heat to ensure we were baked from above AND below. Secretly, I was loving every second of it. I'd always liked the heat...Thinking about it now, it really makes sense if...Anyway, you probably don't know much what I'm talking about. I'm in a marching band--well, WAS in one. You know what that is, right? ...Thanks, Charla. Yeah, I played an instrument--and pretty damn well, if I do say so myself. That'd, I guess, be my title...Charlie Pacific the Trumpet. In fact, I was the top trumpet player and the one who looked after the other trumpet players to make sure they were going alright and doing what they needed. I was the trumpet section leader for our marching band!

...Huh? Well, you DON'T really need section leaders if all you do is parades. We weren't practicing for a parade. See, some high school marching bands work, starting in glorious summer, on something called a marching show. We march in all directions--mostly anywhere but forwards--in unison, each person to a different place, all while playing a song. It's HARD, but when it's pulled off right, the results are something that you can never describe with words. The only way to know what a marching show is like is to be there to watch one. Anyway, right then, we were in a set--a part of the show where people move to their next place before the next set, all within a number of beats of the music. The band director--my Band class teacher--was currently working with the tubas and fixing something, so me and my friends, Toby and Ariko, were taking the time to socialize...as was everyone else.

"Why aren't YOU baking?" asked Toby, gesturing at me. "You're the one under the most layers!"

I shrugged, smirking. "I'm just not that affected by heat," I answered. "Look at me in the winter, though, and I'm the saddest guy in the world."

"I'LL say," Ariko agreed, rolling her eyes. "YOU'RE the wussie when it comes to cold, yet you live in northern-located Sinnoh. Where's the logic behind that?"

I shrugged again. "Who knows, who cares?" I asked, smiling. I looked at where she was standing, then at the curve we were supposed to be making. "What's important right now is that we're too close to each other and making too much of an angle," I waved my arm to the ground in a curving motion. I yelled behind Ariko, "Hey, Jones, you and Thompson move a bit more this way," and behind Toby, "Jub-Jub, you and--yeah, you, unless there're more Jub-Jubs that play trumpet in this school--you and Eldon go a bit away from us. Everyone, let's curve this a little bit more, okay?" (Jub-Jub was just a nickname, by the way.)

Toby smirked at me as we all shuffled a bit. "Yannow, you're a great section leader, know why?" he asked.

"No, why?" I asked, honestly. I was a good marcher...trust me, you wouldn't be laughing if you knew how different marching is from walking--but I wasn't STELLAR. I was also AWESOME on the trumpet, but so were Toby and Ariko. And I wasn't afraid to lead, but I wasn't the perfect leader--though I'll admit, that trait was a bit better than normal. This was all, though, what I personally thought of myself.

"You can be as loud as a roaring pokémon, that's why," Toby answered, and he laughed.

I chuckled myself. "Well, I guess that explains things," I said. "Though, that would mean I might be better as drum major, with all the yelling they've gotta do," I joked. (Drum majors--DMs for short--are students who don't play, but conduct us on the field.)

"You've sure as heck got the sense of tempo and the stamina," Ariko agreed, raising a gentle crescent of an eyebrow and smiling at me.

"Ready, Mr. Gordon!" an amplified voice made us all jump.

Mr. Gordon, a man with a slightly oval head and a harried expression on his face most of the time, turned and smiled. "Good, we'll start in ten minutes!" he called back.

In front of us, a rare sight for show bands--marching bands who do these marching shows--was another band. This was the kind of band that you might be more familiar with--a rock band. Well, okay, their drummer was in our band right now, but their singer, bass guitarist, and electric guitarist were there, amps, mic, and instruments plugged in and ready to go.

"I still can't believe the theme they agreed on for this year's show," said Ariko, beaming.

I grinned, showing my teeth to everyone. "Yeah, ain't it great?" I asked. "'Marching Band Hits,' a collection of rock, pop, and other popular stuff from around the world, all arranged by students and teachers from and for this school. I can't wait until we work on 'Sink Into Me' later on!"

I was about to go on, ranting and raving about the songs that were in it that I loved, when I noticed them looking weirdly at me. They were squinting at me, tilting their heads. I stopped and looked puzzledly at them. "What?" I asked.

"...Nothing," Ariko said, shaking her head.

"Not gonna lie, but I think the heat's getting to me," Toby said, raising an eyebrow. "I swear, your canines look bigger and sharper."

I raised my eyebrows and let out a half-scoff, half-chuckle. "Puh! Well! I guess you're getting dehydrated or something, wearing that hat--your head's where most of your body heat goes out, or at least a lot of it, you know."

But I still couldn't help but tap the tip of my tongue to my canines. I dismissed the feeling as a trick from what he'd said.

**-*-**

I woke up the next morning, sitting up in bed and stretching as I always did. I looked out the window and laughed. It was another scorching day--great news for nobody but myself. I hummed the solo I had memorized for our second-to-last number, a piece from France called "L'Hymn de l'Amour", which means "The Hymn of Love". It's beautiful, if short, and I loved to do it. It required a lot of expression, something that I specialized in apart from jazz music.

I went down to the kitchen to eat some breakfast before I brushed my teeth and showered. There, I found, on the fridge, a note:

Charlie, we've gone out on our trip. We're confident that you'll hold down the fort while we're gone! Be back in about ten days! Love, Mom and Dad

I grinned to myself, thinking, 'Sweet, the house is finally all to myself,' before another thought flashed through my head: 'Hey, my teeth feel...funny.' I ran my tongue over them. Nothing new--molars, incisors, canines, everything as they ought to be.

Then, while I ate, I thought they felt weird again--moreso. I checked again. Nothing.

I even checked while brushing them after my shower, when they'd felt weirdest. Still nothing, but I could feel the brush on them. "Why are my teeth getting sensitive?" I asked nobody, baring them to myself in the mirror, grabbing the sink. Then my teeth bulged like a heart when it beats.

I gasped.

A sharp pressure began to come from my mouth. I grunted in surprise, whipping my head down and almost konking myself out on the faucet. I began panting as the pressure built, and then gacking as it felt like my teeth were...growing! Suddenly, I felt an increase in pressure in one of my teeth as it shot out in size, cartoonishly big, before it shrank again--but not as small as it was. I involuntarily tilted my head to the direction of it, grunting in surprise. Then, each of my teeth did the same thing, going at random around my mouth and increasing in rate. All this time, my tongue was feeling a little weird, too. So, finally, after fifteen seconds, my teeth were done--and my tongue was shooting out into the bowl of the sink. Just as fast, it yanked itself back into my mouth, reeling me back onto my heels.

By the time I regained my balance, slamming down to the sink with my nose an inch from the chrome of the faucet, it was all finished. I panted from adrenaline for a moment before slowly, scared as if I were about to see a horrible wound's damage, looking in the mirror. I bared my--fangs. And stuck out a pointed tongue.

I froze like that--mouth open, tongue out, all triangles in there. All of my teeth, except for four of my molars, had become fangs. My tongue had become pointed instead of rounded, and it could stick out much farther. I just stayed there, blinking, for a solid eight seconds before running to my room, grabbing my pillow, and screaming into it. I bet the neighbors STILL heard me.

I didn't know what to do! Should I have gone to band anyway? Wait, I didn't have it that day. But should I call someone?...No, they'd NEVER believe me! Wait...What if I just keep my mouth closed as much as possible and open it only slightly when talking? But people will ask why...Wait, I'll just say it's none of their business! I kept thinking and planning half the day. All the time, I was conscious of the fact that, now, my whole body felt different...like a tiny pressure was pressing out from my veins. I was scared. I did many things to my face--slapping, pinching, splashing with painfully icy water--to ensure I was awake, this wasn't a dream. 'If this all stops before Friday,' I thought, 'it'll be okay. Heck, even if it's just the teeth and tongue...' In fact, my new tongue gave me a problem that focused my mind for the next hour: A point meant I couldn't make a 'du' sound as well, which is bad for expressive playing. I practiced my trumpet. Then I watched tv. Then I played some video games. And I went about life as normal, but not really.

I woke up the next day and cautiously went about my life again. My body felt strange, still, and my mouth was still different. I didn't know what was next--the pressure was all over. 'Heck, I don't even know if it'll happen today, too,' I thought, trying to comfort myself. 'It took a hell of a long time for my teeth...'

But to no avail. I was sitting in my room, reading a book, when, suddenly, I bounced up. I blinked for a moment, trying to remember when I bounced myself and why, when I realized what it was--right before the pressure began. I then--in a funny scene--was clamping my rear, moaning like a guy with the runs or constipation, and soon getting up. I staggered to my bed and fell onto it face-first, thinking to unbuckle my belt and drop trou. Just in time, too. Crashing into my wall, snaking out the door and crawling around the house was what felt like a hundred feet of black and white, but was probably only maybe fifty. It stayed that way for three quarters of an hour. I marveled at it. Though strange to me, especially that it was coming OUT of me, it was really very pretty. The scales shimmered and the hide was soft and smooth.

I pulled my tail to myself, gathering it in my room in a coil. You wanna know how it feels? Ever not see where your tail is and then just slide it out? Imagine that times seventy. I was astounded at it, and confused as to why it was so big. Moreover, I was worried. I even leaned into it, using its coils as a seat (and feeling it) and, after half an hour, something to play with absently (I can be easily amused at times) as I agonized over what I could do to hide it. Cutting it off seemed the only way. I was grim, but satisfied, and for the last ten minutes, I just enjoyed having a huge-ass ass for a bit.

After it receded into me again once its time was up--a feeling that'll wake you up, for sure--I found it was normal charizard length (though I didn't know it was charizard length at the time). I didn't have a flame yet, so I had yet to know what I was turning into. Since it was manageable, I decided to keep it. I have a weird tongue and teeth and a tail, too. There's no way I could hide all that! Well, maybe--thinking about it later, I thought I could pass it off as a beer gut by passing it between my legs, which my marching pants' large crotch area could hide. I would make us lose points for not standing at attention right, but that'd be fine, I thought.

Things got worse, however, after the next night. That was when something else grew, if you know what I mean. All day, I had stopped feeling weird, and I thought that'd be it. When it suddenly came on, after I recognized what it WASN'T, I thanked goodness I was able to shut the blinds in the bathroom in time. After it all went back--and went INSIDE--I realized that something was _very_ wrong with me.

Huh? Oh...*whispers something about human anatomy*...I know, we're wondering why the heck we've got it out in the open, too, since women have been making use of that fact for eons. *shudders* Honestly, we might as well be wearing a Kick Me sign down there!

Anyway...It was the most disturbing thing I'd ever seen in my entire life, and the memory'll never fade. *shudder*

...How b--?!

_*crash, grunts and yells, then the sound of flames being blown; a few seconds later, coughing and a sound of a balloon stretching...then a groan and grumble*_

Make another comment like that and you're not gonna be ABLE to move, got it?? ...Good. Anyway, yeah, after that, I realized that I was COMPLETELY transforming. If the unmentionables change, you know you're changing--like when you hit puberty. Oh, wait, you don't know about that, do you...evolving, there. But that's different, since it's all at once. I was evolving slowly and spasmodically, usually with a body part growing much larger than normal for a relatively short time before shrinking again.

I began becoming depressed as I changed. I was just lying on my back on my bed on that Friday, missing rehearsal to my chagrin. I felt pressure in my feet, like my shoes were too small, and just leaned over, took them off, and leaned back. I watched as first one foot, then the other grew absurdly huge, reminding me of an American music video I saw once. I let my new footpaws hang off the bed for a bit, before they went to normal size--still too big for my legs. All the time, I was practically emotionless. It helped that, as a precaution, I had flipped all of the blinds.

Those came next, as well as my butt. While I was watching tv, I felt my lower body shudder. I was about to rush to the john--which had become the strangest experience in the world--when I realized it wasn't that. I stripped, unafraid since I had nothing to show anymore, and waited. Soon, my knees were touching the ceiling and I was flopped against my rear, laughing my head off at it. (My footpaws weren't bigger to accommodate, either, which made it that much funnier.) It got annoying, actually, when they stayed for half an hour and I had to look at the tv from an angle.

Next came wings, which was my favorite of them all. They came out when I was checking my e-mail, and I was able to get into the living room before they became big, twenty-foot fans of red and black beauty. I then knew what I was becoming. I then knew for sure I could never be the same again. I could never be seen again. They stayed for an hour and a half.

My body was feeling more pressureful each day, and I wasn't liking it. My arms came next, right when I was playing video games. My controller broke in the process, as did my tv. I couldn't do much for fourty-five minutes, feeling like an orangutang.

And then came my torso. I was sleeping when I felt it and woke up. I was barely able to keep it at bay, somehow, long enough to arrange my room so that nothing would get totally destroyed, and even enough time for me to run and get food in case, before I filled the room. Instead of coming fast, it came relatively slow and steady, and my tail was caught up in its flow. It went like a macrophage, swallowing my room in its soft bigness, soon pushing me against the wall as it pressed against all. I thought I wouldn't be able to see when the part of my tail that now went under my crotch pushed me up, pressing me nearly to the ceiling. I stayed there, looking at a field of white, for eighteen hours. I never had the need to use the bathroom. I got hungry once, and that was satiated. But I couldn't move.

From that day forth, I had made a sworn enemy.

_*laughing is heard before yelping and a swish of claws through the air*_

I'm WARNING you.

I was asleep when it receded. I woke up and looked at it. It gurgled and I, though unhappy, fed it. When I saw it the next day, I was shocked. You wanna know why I tried starving myself? Bad metabolism. SO bad, if I eat even a normal amount of food with normal amounts of fat in it, I gain it. It SUCKS. I'm like a dieter's worst nightmare. I can only live off fruit, as far as I can tell, though I'm going to need protein in my diet--that's where this thing's been getting steadily bigger. I hate it. All of it. I want it to die! *pum puum pum*

*sighs* Sorry. The day after my torso was torture--I didn't know when it would happen. Nothing. I was waiting for the completion. I looked at myself in the mirror that evening while bathing. I had a human head on the body of a shiny charizard. A fat one, too. I looked too weird, and I cried.

The final day, the day my parents were supposed to come home, I was at the end of my wits. That afternoon, I was in my room, stomping this way in that as I paced. Finally, I threw myself on my bed and yelled, "JUST HAPPEN!! DAMMIT, JUST HAPPEN!!"

Nothing.

I grabbed my head and started pulling. "C'mON! GROW! You know you want to! I'm not going to live life a fucking FREAK of NATURE!! JUST FINISH IT! PLEA-HE-HEASE!!" I stopped and cried, leaning on my bed and burying my face in my arms.

Then I heard a car coming. I heard it and knew exactly who it was. I gasped, paling. "No..."

I hit my head. "Come ON! Come ON!! Just DO IT!! PLEASE! I DON'T CARE! I DON'T WANT THIS ANYMORE!!" I screamed.

And finally my head throbbed.

"JUST GO!!" I kept crying. "GO!! DO IT!!"

My neck lengthened, and I felt my face slowly change. Outside, my parents pulled up. I heard the car door slam. My eyes moved and grew, my skull lengthened, and horns sprouted from my cranium. It was slow, and for once not bigger than normal.

That was for all of me, not just the new growth. As I finished growing my final part, I felt myself push up against the entire room. "JUST DO WHATEVER!! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE AS LONG AS YOU'RE COMPLETE!!" I begged, tears falling down and making first a fist-sized splash, then a basketball-sized one. My hair fell down around it, making a gross mess on the floor.

They were coming upstairs. "Charlie?" Mom called. "What's wrong? Charlie??"

I felt fire wrapping around my body, from my face to my arms to my bastard belly. Then, suddenly, as it went up my tail and got to the tip, I abruptly shrank again, the size pumping into the flame. It was just a flare, though, and I was finished. I felt sick. But I felt something more.

Mom.

"Charlie?!" She banged on my door, which was locked. "Charlie? Are you alright?"

I cried, looking at my door. 'No...! You can't see me like this!!' I hit my stomach for the umpteenth time, roaring, "YOU HAPPY NOW?! HUH?!"

"CHARLIE?!"

I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't say anything coherent. I began roaring nonsense as sobs, fighting to open my window.

"CHARLIE!!"

I left everything at home. I forced myself through my window, breaking the wall around it with a loud crash. By the time Mom broke down the door, all she saw were the ruins of my room and an obese shiny charizard flying south, keening, behind the trees lining our side of the street. She saw just my form, black and white and red blotches through the leaves. We had eye contact for one split second during a break in them. I can imagine it in slow motion, now. I looked at her mournfully, she looked at me in shock. A tear was flying out of my eye. 'I'm sorry, Mom, but good-bye,' I thought to her.

And I left Evertown, never to return.

I flew for days, over the ocean for one night when I didn't think to rest, and over land the rest of the way. I crossed Kanto and then here to Johto, coming to the place I heard of--the sanctuary for charizard, the Charicific Valley. Tired as hell, I landed nearby and walked the way up in the rain at night. This is now the only place for me. The only home I have.

***-*-*-**

Charlie was quiet. He had been speaking into his belly for the past few minutes while recounting his story. Charla was crying silently, Charizard was merely frowning...the latter able to hover three inches off the ground if he was very still, thanks to being further blown up by Charlie.

"...I'm sorry," Charla said after a moment. "I'm so lucky I was born normally...You spent all your life as a human, and then...that perturbing transformation..." She sniffed and wiped her nose.

"...I'm sorry, too," Charizard said softly from over the arc of his front. He rolled carefully, flapping his wings ever so gently. He tapped his tail to the wall behind and above him, letting him roll more and push down. He did it perfectly, coming over to Charlie's side. He patted his shoulder and left his paw there. "I promise not to make fun of you anymore, if you don't want me to."

Charlie was silent for a moment before he looked up and over at Charizard, eyes wet. "Really?" he asked, fighting to sound normal.

Charizard smirked and nodded. "Yeah, though I can't be accused if we become good enough friends that I joke around," he said, winking mischievously.

Charlie let out a little laugh, one given by a crier who can't help but laugh. He sniffed and wiped his nose on his stomach. "I get that, I get it," he understood.

"And I'm lookin' at bein' friends," Charizard added, smiling fully and pulling himself closer to him a centimeter. "You shouldn't feel like you're alone all the time. There are always those who can help you. And don't feel that you've lost your friends, like I think you might--you can have new ones." He grinned. "I dunno how I compare, but I think I'd be a pretty cool friend, personally."

"And don't hate your body like that," Charla added, pointing to his belly. "Sure, you're overweight, but that's just how your body is. If you transformed like that, that's the way you might have to be. And it's your body. You never get another one, no matter how much it changes." She came over and crouched, putting one paw on his stomach, resting a clawpad on his nose. She giggled as well as a charizard can. "You need someone to get you to stop emoing all over the place. I can tell that it doesn't fit you at all. If there's anything I can do to help--even if it's just to be a friend--I'll do it."

Charlie smiled in that "Aaaawwww!" way, looking at the two of them. "Thank you, guys...thank you..." He sniffed, then, surprising both of them, grabbed their heads and hugged them closely to him. They mrfed as they pressed into his soft frontal flesh and frowned uncertainly, but they soon smiled warmly and nuzzled and hugged back (as best they could, given mobility circumstances). Even Charizard hugged with both arms. He may have been a tough guy, but he, like all pokémon, had a heart, and it seemed to resonate strongly with Charlie's.

They were like this for a minute before Charlie let them go, sniffing and laughing, a blush coming to his cheeks. "Heh...Sorry...Got pretty emotional, there...I tend to be that way, sometimes..."

Charla giggled again and smiled somewhat motherly. "That's perfectly normal for pokémon," she told him. "We can be very affectionate creatures...especially the big guys," she added, winking at him.

Charlie blushed even more, looking away. Charizard raised an eyeridge at her, but she raised one at him in a way that made him do the same as Charlie. They ended up looking at each other, and, seeing each other's expression, they laughed.

Charlie sighed and wiped his eyes with the back of his wrist. "Ooohh...I think I needed that," he said. He shook his head. "Oh...Man...Thanks, seriously, for offering to be my friends. I promise that I'll try my best to stop being so emo and depressed all of the time." He smiled at them both, then chuckled and winked. "But just to warn you, you might wanna think again after you get to know me better."

Charizard sweatdropped, his unsure frown leaving view as he bobbed back to his neutral position in the air. "Ummm...Dare I ask what that means?" he asked, and Charla laughed.

"We should really get you to speak with Liza," Charla said, paw on a hip. "She wants to see you pretty badly. She's worried about you and wants to help. Maybe if you tell her your story, she could contact your family and tell them what's--"

"No," interrupted Charlie, cutting a paw across the air. He gave her a steady look. "They'll never understand; they'll think I'm a freak, now. I mean it." He looked away. "I'm a charizard with serious weight problems and no way to go back to living life like before," he said quietly.

"Hey, what about that promise?" Charizard barked, looking down disappointedly at him.

"Could you get down from there, already? You're weirding me out," Charla chastised Charizard, paws on hips like a nag.

Charizard smirked. "Hey, if you let Charlie do it to you, you'll see why I haven't, yet," he joked, and he laughed as Charla struck him, making him ricochet quickly across the tight room a bit. "WHEEEE!!"

"The hot air's getting to his head," Charla told Charlie flatly, half-eyeing him. She yelped when she was knocked almost entirely to her side. She growled annoyedly and caught him. "Alright, that's enough with the bouncing boy," she said. She then hopped up and, to Charizard's dismay, copied Charlie from an hour previous and sat on his back. She wiggled a bit to get in good position, then grinned brightly. "Okay, you can stay like this--in fact, get a bit bigger, I'd appreciated the room!" she chirped.

Charizard half-eyed and sweatdropped, arms hanging in front of him helplessly. "Alright," he said to nobody in particular, "now this is starting to get seriously weird..."

Charlie looked at this, straight-faced, before his eye twitched once and he was sent into peals of laughter. Pure, honest laughter--quite literally a belly laugh. His tail flame went up high and hearty. He put a paw over his face while he shook his head. "Charizard-on-charizard action, I've finally seen it," he managed to squeak out, which made both charizards anger-vein and Flamethrower him.

""THE ONLY PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WE HAVE APART FROM FRIENDS IS THAT OF BODYGUARD AND CLIENT, FOR POKÉ'S SAKE!!"" they roared at him, arms up and Charla taking a step forwards.

Charlie shook off the soot (a difference noticed only on his front and wing insides) and chuckled again, shaking his head. "I warned you," he shook his middle claw at them in his best imitation of the human gesture, winking.

Charla sighed and flopped back down to her rear, bouncing up and down (and making Charizard grunt from himself bouncing with the extra weight). "Okay, now, honestly," she said, crossing her arms, "go and see Liza. She's probably back at her hut. At least tell her your story so she'll quit being a worrywart. Tell her I'm hanging out with Charizard for a bit, alright?" She smiled at him.

"And feel free to bunk with me for a while, too," Charizard offered, holding a paw up and smiling, himself.

Charlie smiled and nodded. "Thank you very much," he said. "I'll be off! Play nice, you two!" He stood up and stomped (without stomping) out.

"Oh, don't worry, we will," Charla said, an evil grin on her face.

Charizard lifted his neck up and looked at her upside-down. He didn't look too sure. "Why don't I like the sounds of this?" he asked.

Charla's eyes glinted as she rubbed her palms together. "As far as I know, you're not the type to play ball," she answered. Charizard relped and was about to burp when his mouth was clamped shut by Charla's paws. "C'mon, be a little playful," she said, dropping the creep act. "If you're going to get seriously hurt, you can take me, if you need to, so don't worry. Now let's play some racquetball while we're in here!" She jumped and, on the descent, kicked him, sending the poor dragonlike pokémon to the wall.

'I KNEW I should've deflated right when I got here!' he thought with regret as he bounced off the wall. 'Charizard are NOT made for bouncing! What does she think I am, a jigglypuff?! Ow, ow, _ow_...'

**-*-**

Meanwhile, Charlie was flying his way to Liza. He noticed that Ralboar was still a blimp--now with a few relaxing passengers, sunning themselves on his stomach (he'd rolled over for the moment). It appeared that Ralboar's nature had completely changed after being inflated within a cubic inch of his life. He waved and bugled to Charlie as he passed by, to which Charlie sweatdropped and hesitated before waving back, looking uneasy. 'Right--I'm never going to inflate anyone ever again for the rest of my life, if this is what happens,' he thought. 'I like him better now, but still, this is too bizarre...' He turned his head forwards again and beat his wings, speeding up.

He circled down to the hut, landing clumsily. He grunted as he skidded on the ground, stopping after tipping and rolling halfway over. (He stopped himself with his paws.) "All that flying, and I STILL suck at landing," he grumbled to himself. While alone, he spoke in Human. He pushed himself back to his feet, perturbed at how smoothly it went, and went over to the hut. He stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath. 'I'll just ask her not to do anything,' he planned. He raised his fist to knock.

"You HAVE?!" a woman's voice cried from behind the door.

Charlie stopped, knuckles and inch in front of the wood, and gasped, eyes widening and pupils shrinking slightly. "Mom--!" he whispered.

"Yeah, he went with some others..." trailed off Liza as footsteps grew louder.

'CRAP!' Charlie crouched and flap-jumped, getting on top of the house. His tail went out of sight just as the door flew open. Charlie's mother came out. She had somewhat Goldilocks-esque blonde hair. She wasn't exactly lean, but wasn't any worse. She currently wore a mahogany two-piece suit--Charlie recognized this as a sign that she was out on a mission to people she had never met before (she'd had to go talk with strangers for work and she always wore that outfit). She looked around, large green eyes reflecting the light brightly.

Charlie, surprisingly, was able to settle his weight onto the building relatively quietly and gently right as his mother yelled, "Where??" and looked around. Just before she looked up, he dashed and glided off the other side, spotting a cave to make a break for once he was sure she wasn't looking.

"Mrs. Pacific?" Liza's voice called out, followed by footsteps. Charlie crouched at the outside corner of the house and listened.

"I'm sorry..."

"You told me that you came into your son's room and spotted a black and white creature flying south, and saw a red eye look at you for a moment; you later found it to be a charizard after Googling it," Liza recapped. "I'm not saying I think you're crazy for thinking your son was taken or otherwise involved with a shiny charizard in his disappearance, but I think you're being a little too hopeful. We DID get a normal-sized shiny recently, but he...wants to be alone. Plus...he was solo."

"Oh..." She walked a couple steps slowly into view. Charlie ducked quickly, cursing his gut again silently because he couldn't get completely down to the ground (forgetting that that wasn't possible even normally for charizard). He saw that she was carrying a case, one that made him gasp silently. Standing in profile to him, she was looking down, holding the case in her near (left) hand and putting her other hand to her sternum. She looked worried more than anything. "I see." She sighed and shook her head, then turned and to an out-of-view Liza. "I know this sounds a bit...odd, but...My son always loved charizard. He said he would have liked to visit this place someday. He must have run away somehow...and I'm certain that this place will be on his list of places to stop at some point." She looked away, face hidden from Charlie. "Even...Even if it takes years..." She looked back at Liza. Her eyes were watering up, and she was fighting the tightening in her throat. "If ever you see him, please..." She looked down at, then held up the case to her. "...Give this to him. It's very important to him, and he forgot it, for some reason."

Liza's hands appeared to take it with utmost care. She stepped forwards, face just appearing to come to view. She looked confidently at Mrs. Pacific, smiling, and nodded. "I promise to guard it with my life until then," she gave, holding the case closely to her.

"Thank you," smiled Charlie's mom, clasping her right hand with her left. "I found it among the shreds of clothing and other debris from his room. I..." And here she paused, looking down and appearing uncertain of what to say. Charlie tilted his head after hearing how she slowly continued: "I don't know what exactly happened, or why it happened. All I know is that my son is in danger..." She trailed off, then snapped her head up quickly and detailed, "No matter how small we say it is, it's still a big world out there, and, in fact, us making it smaller sure as heck doesn't help. I mean, someone could read the news about a missing boy, kidnap him, and hold him for ransom!" She pouted and crossed her arms. "I TOLD my husband not to offer that big a reward," she grumbled, and Charlie almost chuckled aloud. He knew how wealthy his parents were.

Liza DID chuckle aloud. "Well, I'll make sure he's safe if he ever gets here, and tell him that you miss him dearly," she assured her.

His mother smiled and held Liza's hand with both of hers. "Thank you, Ms. Liza," she said tenderly. "I appreciate it. You've been very helpful." She let go and cleared her throat. "I must be off, however. I've got to get back home and help at the company." She bowed. "Thank you once more, and good-bye."

Liza bowed back. "It's my pleasure, and have a safe trip back home!" she bade, and she waved as, after a pause, Charlie's mother walked away to the gates. He and she waited until the sound of the gates closing once more clanged across the valley before sighing. "Charlie...It couldn't be..." Liza muttered. She shook her head. "No, a human's never been able to Transform, and I've never heard of a pokémon Transforming into a human," she told herself.

'This was a transformation, Liza,' Charlie thought bitterly, glaring at the memory and biting his lip, 'but it wasn't Transform. Transform is merciful.'

Liza went back inside. The windows were open, and so Charlie--who decided to hide, still, until he was sure he could glean no more information about this meeting he couldn't with words--crept around and listened. He heard the sound of hard plastic settling down onto a tabletop as Liza said, "I'll have to find a place to put this while waiting for him to come." She stopped and looked out the window. "...That shiny could talk...maybe he could tell me if he knows anything about this. That is," she added, sounding wry as she half-eyed and sweatdropped, "if those two don't stop fooling around and bring him to me." She sighed agitatedly and turned, walking off elsewhere in the house. "Well, better get dinner started...chicken takes a while sometimes..."

Charlie waited for a moment, then peeked up after hearing distant sounds of kitchen work. He was in the wrong window, so he went around and got to the right one. On a table in front of the window was a black case that he knew all too well. He looked at it for a long minute, thinking. He looked up again, hearing Liza humming to herself in the kitchen.

A clutter (not quite sharp enough to be a clatter) sounded from the living room, and Liza gasped. "The case!" She raced out. "Did it fall out the--IT--!!" She skidded to a halt, apron wrapped around her and cooking knife in her right hand, in front of the small table against the wall. The case was gone. Instead, there was a note written on a pad that was on the table, as well. She took it and read it, eyebrow rising. "'Thanks'?" She looked out the window and saw a black form flying off into the distance. She blinked in amazement, mouth open a little. "...He took it...But why...?" she asked. "Surely, he couldn't..."

**-*-**

Charizard had deflated himself by the time Charlie had returned. He raised his eyeridges as he and Charla, sitting together outside and watching the end of the sunset, looked up to see him return with something. "Oh? What's that?" he asked.

Charlie landed--again with difficulty--and replied, smiling, "Mine." He then utilized himself and set the case on his front, where the hide's gentle roughness was enough to keep it from sliding off. He opened it.

"Did you talk with Liza?" asked Charla.

"Nope," Charlie returned, dropping his jaw into a small smile. "Aaaah...you're still fine, huh?"

"What's in there? Seriously," Charizard asked, eyeridges down in suspicion while he stepped over and arced his neck to look down into it. His eyeridges went up again as he saw shiny

"Brass to kick some with," Charlie answered, grinning with a determined set to his eyes as he pulled out his trumpet. "I'm gonna REALLY bugle welcomes to folks, now!"

"But how?!" Charizard asked, spreading his arms. "We're not meant to use our lips so much! We're using our throat and tongue more than anything right now--what use do we have for our lips? You need them to play, right?"

"We've got lips, and I can speak well enough when using them, aren't I?" Charlie asked in Human, putting a paw on his hip as he, having fully assembled the horn, closed the case. "It'll be hard, but I'm not gonna sit here without it now that I've got it again." He looked at his right paw, holding the instrument with its three digits. "Until I mutate another claw, though, I might be screwed beyond bugling, but..." He shook his head. "No!" He brought up his other fist, face determined but smiling. "I'm going to practice my best! You'd better get ready to cover your ears, Charizard, because I'm gonna be blastin' my heart out!"

Charizard looked at Charla, who looked at him. They then looked at Charlie again, smiling a bit. "Well, at least you're doing something, aren't you?" Charla asked. "This is good. Have fun!"

Charlie smiled and bowed, taking his case off his stomach. "Thank you. I've gotta go, now, though!" he said, waving as he scampered off. The stone below shuddered with each step, some weaker parts cracking a little with his weight.

Charizard groaned, narrowing his eyes. "Great, now I'm never gonna get any sleep again," he grumbled.

"Aw, hush, ya big jerk, go and kick something's butt," Charla said, patting his back.

- - -

Yeah, there's more! Sorry for how weird this has been! At least it's better than LAST chapter...*sweatdrops* And, yes, I know that it's kinda confusing when he said he felt something more, then just "Mom." That's the way he narrates, I guess. What he meant was an internal torture, then he just said "Mom." to signify that he knew she was still there. Maybe also to sorta double-endentre by saying that he felt her presence, physical and in his heart. *shrug* Anyway, thanks for reading still if you're unaccustomed to this stuff. ^^;

_Tok, tok, tok, t-t-t-_"MOVE!"

* * *

_Tok, tok, tok, tok..._


	3. Edification

***'*,*'* Chapter Three - Edification *'*,*'***

The next couple of days in the valley were filled with blaring notes, echoing off of the cliff walls. Liza was in disbelief as she heard it the day after Charlie reclaimed his trumpet, flying on the back of Charla. "He's--"

"Mmmmm," nodded Charla.

Liza blinked for a moment. "...Like, seriously, he can--"

"Mmmmm," nodded Charla. She smirked, looking at her rider out of the corner of her eye.

Liza was dumbstruck. "...You think it's even--"

"Mmmmm..." half-eyed Charla.

Meanwhile, Charizard was covering his ears while walking along the trees in the forest. "You HAVE to bring that with you?" he asked, grumbling. "I don't think fruit juice is good for it..."

Charlie, doing his best to walk along by rolling from his heel to his toe smoothly--an action called roll-stepping--held his trumpet to his tightened lips and blew, buzzing them as brass players must to get a sound out. He held the trumpet itself with his left paw, which used to be only used for support, and his right paw was on top of the keys. His "thumb" digit was replacing his index finger, his middle digit reprised its role as middle finger, and his "pinky" digit was acting as his ring finger, and he was finding it slightly difficult to work them in the new position his paw was in and with the way his brain worked them. (His thumb and pinky originally did nothing but hold, and he had, as the strong sounds emitting from the bell of the horn attested to, gotten the hang of using his mouth within the first hour of practice. Half hour, actually.) He paused his playing for a moment, turning the bell down as he looked to the side at Charizard. He smiled. "That's one good reason why I swallow every piece of fruit I eat whole nowadays, skin and all," he pointed out.

"You do that because it's fun, that's why," Charizard corrected him, smirking. He then looked slyly at him. "Betcha I can swallow more at once than you can without making a sign of pain," he challenged.

"I bet you can, too," Charlie agreed, then went back to practicing.

Charizard dropped his neck in slight anime fall style. "That's not the point..." he grumbled.

Eventually, though, at lunch, Charlie acquiesced and humored Charizard with the contest. Yet again, Charizard was victorious, leaving Charlie to massage his throat. They sat on a rock by a river that ran across the valley.

"HAH! You can't take four oran berries? I could probably take EIGHT!!" he boasted, bugling in glory.

"Nnngh...yeah, good for you, good for you," moaned Charlie, holding his throat. "Man, it felt like a big one dropping into the bowl when those things finally went down...Those were BIG orans!"

"Let's have an official eating contest next time, then I bet you'd win," Charizard winked, elbowing Charlie's gut.

Charlie half-eyed at him, anger-veining a little as he gave the sidelong glance, snout down and a little to Charizard. "I'm having enough trouble marching as it is," he said, nonplussed.

Charizard chuckled. "Look, truth be told, nobody would give a damn if you were a snorlax with wings," he informed him, arms crossed. "We just have a tendency to like pissing newbies off."

Charlie raised his head level and eyeridges up with it. "Really?" he asked.

"Sure!" Charizard flicked his paw dismissively. "We're pokémon. We've sure as hell got a society of a sort, but we're not like the way humans have become these last couple hundred years. We're wild--the bigger we are, the harder we fall, if you catch my drift."

Charlie nodded. "Fat IS emergency energy," he remembered. He blushed and frowned, embarrassed a little as he looked at his stomach. "I'm just glad this place is so bountiful, 'cuz I'd sure hate to have to make use of that fact." He very lightly punched it, fist sinking in just a centimeter.

"You sure didn't act like it the other day," laughed Charizard a little dryly.

Charlie couldn't help but laugh at this, too. He stopped when he noticed something. "Hm? Hey, another shiny," he said, pointing up with his trumpet he held while leaning on his other paw.

"Hm?...Oh," Charizard said dully, half-lidding. "Sorry, but I'll admit we've still got stereotypes, one of which being that shinys are a bit arrogant," he confessed.

Charlie frowned. "Well, that's not right," he said, looking at Charizard. "They didn't seem that snobby when I went to them yesterday..."

"It's coming over here," Charizard noticed. Charlie looked up and saw the other shiny circling down to them. It was pretty big, but all wild charizard, it seemed, were bigger than ones caught and trained. ('I wonder why,' Charlie pondered whenever he thought about this.)

The bigger shiny came down and backwinged to a hover before dropping ten feet from the ground, making a loud slamming sound as it did. It must have been made of pure, toned muscle beneath its scales--it appeared to be thinner than most charizard, but its drop sounded like it weighed far more than it looked. "Excuse me, little one," he asked, gentle-voiced, as he stepped forwards to them. He bent down to get closer to Charlie. "Are you the one who made Ralboar into a drifblim yesterday?"

Charlie nodded. "Yup," he answered. He cocked his head, raising an eyeridge. "He still...?"

"No, but he's kept a little bit with him," came the half-eyed, sweatdropping response from the other shiny.

Charizard and Charlie made the same face as they made a weirded-out, ""Mmmmm..."" in unison. "Whaddaya want, dullard?" Charizard asked.

The shiny closed his eyes and held his head up a bit. "I would appreciate it if I weren't called a dullard," he said calmly. "I suppose you would like it as much if I called you a runt."

Charizard growled, but Charlie patted his shoulder, and he stopped. Charlie crossed his arms, careful around his instrument. "May I help you?" he asked warily.

The shiny bowed his head again to him. "You were at our spring, but you left quite abruptly, and our elder was worried," he told him, "as were we all. We've caught wind--pardon the pun--of your exploit, and have calmed. However, the elder is still a little antsy. He has requested an audience with you."

"An audience??" Charlie raised an eyeridge, cocking his head. "W.T.F.?" (This was in Human.)

Charizard saved the shiny, who looked at him in confusion from the term. "These guys--well, you guys, I guess--have a slightly different culture here, for some reason," he explained. "For example, the eldest (and usually biggest) is respected as a leader, something that's not exactly done in the rest of the valley."

'I'LL say he's biggest,' Charlie rolled his eyes. "I see," he said.

"We're different partially because YOU all have secluded us to our hot springs," the shiny literally pointed out to Charizard, pointing at "you".

Charizard shrugged. "Sorry," he apologized.

The shiny nodded. To Charlie, he asked, "Will you come?"

Charlie swung his tail beneath his leg and rocked forth and up. "Sure," he said. "Now?"

"As soon as you can."

"Alright," he nodded. He turned to Charizard and held out the trumpet, which Charizard looked at in surprise and question. "Bring this back to the den--I don't want to risk it getting hurt," he told him.

"What? It's made of metal; it'll be fine, won't it?" Charizard asked, raising a nostril at the idea of gruntwork.

Charlie shook his head vigorously. "Hell no! Instruments HATE water, mostly! And metal gets hurt if exposed to too much water. Please, just take it. And be careful!" He shoved it onto Charizard.

Charizard grumbled and took it, holding it as carefully as he could. "Er...fine," he said, looking up a little grumpily. "But you can do it yerself next time, alright?"

"Right, thanks, Charizard," smiled his friend, waving. He turned to the shiny. "Well?"

"Then let's get going," the shiny said, turning and crouching. Charlie followed after he took off, grunting from the wind created by the huge creature.

Charizard watched them go, raising an eyeridge. "I wonder why the definition of 'lardiness' wants to see him," he muttered.

**-*-**

The steamy hot springs made Charlie cough a little as they entered the airspace above it. "This way, please," the shiny in front of him asked. He soared, beating his great wings and dispersing some steam. Charlie followed in his wake.

Finally, the lead one landed on top of a wide stone shelf. He turned and watched Charlie come, making to land. "No, higher," he pointed behind him. Charlie looked up and realized that wasn't another wall of steam. He remembered yesterday and grimaced, not too comfortable with what he was being made to do.

At last, he had made his way to the crest of the white hill. He just stopped beating his wings altogether and fell down onto it, too tired to care for that moment. He bounced a couple times, rolling forwards once before grabbing some of the 'ground' and stopping himself. All this time, he was amazed at what he was doing. 'I thought only snorlax could get this big!!' he thought, looking at the ampleness he held in his paw before climbing back up to the absolute top. He was panting the entire time from the effort of his flight. He stood on top and breathed, footpaws looking like buttons in a fancy pillow or something as they indented the flesh around it. "I...can't wait to be...rid of this thing on me..." he muttered in Human.

"But why? It serves to make you stronger in flight, for one," boomed a voice.

Charlie turned to see the figure in the steam above him, remembering that the thing he was amazed with (and his own version he was angry with) was attached to someone. A BIG someone. Again, he looked into the ruby eyes of the elder shiny as he bent his massive skull down to him. His neck creased in a few places as he did. Charlie had the instinct to bow before such an authority and followed it. He went so far, his chin touched the middle of his own stomach. "I-I'm sorry, er, elder," he stuttered.

The elder put his car-sized skull almost directly in front of Charlie. "I thank you for the respect, little one," he gently boomed. "You may rise. And sit, I implore," he added, raising his padded paw and gesturing.

Charlie rose, but he hesitated. "..." 'Fine, I don't want to insult him,' he thought, giving in and sitting as he normally did. 'Besides, I'm tired.' He crossed his legs as best he could, sandwiching them between bellies, and looked up. "May I help you, elder?" he inquired.

The elder nodded, chin touching front. Charlie felt the intense heat coming from his nostrils. "Yes. First, use my name, if you will," he said. He bowed his head, almost muffling himself, and closed his eyes, introducing, "I am Elder Gigaiya the Gargantuan," in Human.

This surprised Charlie, making him rock back a little and emit a small, "Huh?" In Charizard, he asked, "Human? You can speak it?" he asked. "...Er, Elder Gigaiya?"

"Yes," replied Gigaiya in Human, still, opening his eyes halfway and smirking at Charlie. "You speak it quite well, I hear. I enjoy the challenge and the different sounds one can create with it."

Charlie smiled a little, happy to hear his native tongue from a non-native mouth (a non-native like no human). "I see," he replied in Human. "Yeah, I can use it fluently."

Gigaiya nodded, then smiled fully at him. "Relax a little more, please, little one," he requested. "You shall come to no harm upon me, be it from myself or others. Or is it something else...?" He tilted his head in concern, frowning a little.

Charlie squirmed a little, shuffling his footpaws in his sit. "Rem...I'd rather not say in public," he muttered.

"I see. Then I ask you please come with me." And before he could get a reply, Gigaiya took him in his paw (silencing the yell of protest) and rose. He stood and spread his enormous wings of a majestic shade of crimson, looking up and left over the top of the flat cliffs around. He crouched, paused, and took off. The wind from his wings acted as Defog, clearing the skies for a moment. He flew up, seemingly effortlessly despite having a much greater fat-to-rest-of-body ratio than Charlie, and went up and over the dizzyingly tall cliff he had looked at. He glided down into a large ravine that began shortly after there, revealing it to be full of caves. A few charizard--most of which were shiny--were visible in some of them. They watched in awe and reverence as the largest charizard on Earth flew past.

He stopped at a grand den at the end of the long chasm. He just dropped after gliding low enough, skidding away and relishing the immensely satisfying clamor and tremors he created as he landed and slowed. Debris flew hither and tither in his wake as his footpaws gouged the stone below him. He grunted, though not unhappily, as he slammed against a wall next to the entrance to the den. He grinned at his work. "Damn, but if this isn't too much fun," he muttered in his language. He looked into his den, face sobering, and entered.

When Charlie could see light again, he found himself indoors. How HUGE that cave was, and BEAUTIFUL! He took a moment to crane his lengthy neck around, gazing at the stalactites/-agmites, crystal, and pools inside. Above was a hole that let light shine down upon them. He was standing on Gigaiya's gut again, and after its owner chuckled, he yelped--both because he was embarrassed and because the movement below made him pitch upwards through the air a foot.

"Enjoying the wonders of the world around you?" Gigaiya asked (in Human), smiling and tilting his head. He raised an eyeridge playfully. He lay against a wall, resting his neck on it to let him look over without hurting it. He clasped his paws together on his chest and smiled broadly at Charlie. "What is your name, little one?" he wondered softly.

Charlie, sitting down again, replied, "Oh, um, Charlie. Charlie Pacific...the, uh..."

Gigaiya shook his head, chuckling again (which Charlie wished he'd do a little gentler, since the vibrations sent him on a ride; he had to grip the stomach firmly, something he felt very uncomfortable about). "You need not tell me your title if you've none as of yet," he assured him. Charlie began to notice that he spoke with an interesting accent when using Human; it was like a mix of the guttural sounds that result from the German language to give his voice the beastial quality he expected, and a gentle lilt of Scottish (Irish? Hell, Scandinavian?? He couldn't tell) that gave his words a calm wiseman-like quality. He bent his head close down to him, smiling even wider.

Charlie caught a glint of mischief in his endless eyes, making him sweatdrop. "Erm...Yes?" he asked.

"You're not quite from the wild--or quite a domestic pokémon, are you?" Eyeridge raise.

Charlie raised both of his. "How--What--Why do you ask?" he decided.

A mercifully silent chuckle with closed eyes. His smile slackened somewhat. "...I wish to understand your plight," he said so softly, you'd think it was someone only as big as Charlie talking.

Charlie took in a breath, but let it out gently and closed his eyes, too, bowing his head. "...I guess I gave away the fact I'm troubled yesterday, didn't I?" he asked quietly.

"You did." Gigaiya opened his eyes and tenderly placed a paw around Charlie. The little pokémon found this strangely comforting--protecting. "Most of the charizard here could care less about you--they see you as another shiny, one who's most likely not wild, and a bit of a strange one, at that. I am concerned for every life around me. Do you know why?" he asked, tilting his head a little.

Charlie opened his eyes and looked up, mouth expressionless. "Why?"

Gigaiya leaned his head closer and whispered, "I had a Trainer once."

Charlie's eyes went huge. "You...You ARE?!" he asked in amazement.

Gigaiya chuckled at the reaction as he leaned back. "Yes, I am a trained pokémon, little Charlie," he answered. His smile faltered a bit. "And I was there to witness her fall beyond ill and pass away," he added very quietly, almost whispering. He closed his eyes and was silent for a moment. "I left after her human relations buried her body and came here. I felt the way you looked like you felt--like there was no more point to living." A pause. "I heard that you attempted suicide."

Charlie, who was frowning and drooping his wings and head, froze. "Mmm..." he grunted. He sighed a second later, defeated. "I did," he admitted. "And I did feel like there was no more point to life."

"But why?" asked the elder, opening his eyes and looking pleading. "I was foolish enough to try and drown myself, which failed, thankfully. The elder, then, helped me along after taking me under his wing. He told me that the ones I loved would be saddened by my weakness and death, that it was not the way. He told me to live, to be who I wanted to be, and to bear no grudges. I took his words to heart after seeing how much the differently-colored charizard around me were abused. I felt compassion, compassion my Trainer had felt for me. I began to love all life from then on, and I carry that love with me wherever I go and am glad for it. This love of life includes love for my own. I have never thought about death ever since then, and that was at least fifty years ago. I've been close, but that's it. Tell me why you almost missed out on the rest of your life, I implore."

Charlie looked away a moment, taking this all in (amazed mostly at the age of the elder). Then, he looked back and nodded slowly. "I'm just going to explain it, and you may believe me or think I'm screwing with you, whatever you want," he told him. "I am or was a human, truth be told. I have been in Evertown, a place just big enough to have a decent school, for as long as I can remember. I was home a couple weeks ago when I began to transform, part by part, into a shiny charizard--a part a day. Teeth and tongue, tail, you-know-what, feet--which became footpaws, legs, wings, arms and hands-to-paws, and then my Goddamn torso, forgive me." (He got a frown, anyway.) "My neck and head were last. Each part came out far bigger than they actually are, for some reason...to describe it in my own words, truly, I'd say it looked like my body was glitching up." (This obviously was lost, but was dismissed.) "I left as soon as I was finished--" He stopped for a moment, memories of the end of yesterday coming back. He looked down. "I left just in time for my mom to miss seeing what I'd become, at least for more than a second."

Gigaiya had his eyeridges raised, impressed. "That is an interesting tale--indeed, unbelievable," he admitted. "However, I DO believe you. You don't smell like a charizard normally does--you still smell a bit like a human." When met with an eyeridge raise, he twitched his nose. "Bigger nose, bigger sense," he explained, and Charlie made a silent "Ah".

Gigaiya furrowed his brow and asked, "I suppose one would feel very unhappy, though is there anything more?"

Charlie nodded solemnly. "My friends," he confirmed. "And the fact that I've let everyone down...See, I was important in a major performance at school, and now I'm not able to do it. I'd be...It'd..." He shook his head hard, clenching his eyes shut. "Nobody'd understand! And the audience would laugh at me or worse! And..." He stopped, looking at nothing in particular. "...Nobody'll ever look at me the same way ever again."

"No, they won't," agreed Gigaiya, making Charlie look at him. He looked grave. But then he smiled. "They'll treat you differently, of course, because they would have to be as dimwitted as a magikarp is weak if they didn't," he added. This made Charlie laugh, which gave Gigaiya the chance to breathe a small sigh of relief. "You're a charizard, now--very different. Going back among humans would be quite difficult, but I wouldn't give up on it so quickly. It was hard for me to fit in, since I grew so much and...other things, but I managed it, and don't say it was because I became elder." He waggled a claw from his other paw at that. "You can inherit a title easily, but it takes personal work to inherit the respect."

Charlie agreed to this with a nod, but was a bit unsure about the rest. "Going back? I'm...I'm not sure," he said, shaking his head. "I mean, all of a sudden? I don't know if I'm ready." He was smiled at by Gigaiya, so he knew that he wasn't entirely wrong for once.

Gigaiya smiled more and rested his chin on top of his stomach entirely, letting it sink in so much that the line of his mouth went away, and he was so soft, his head didn't bob as much as Charlie thought it would when he spoke. "Do you have a place to live?" he asked.

Charlie tilted a paw. "Sort of," he said. "I'm bunking with Charizard, the smallest normal charizard in the valley. I don't think he likes my trumpet playing, though..."

Gigaiya raised an eyeridge. "Oh? You're the one we've been hearing?" he asked. A nod, and he grinned. "I ADORE music! You'll have to play for me sometime. The acoustics, if the echoes haven't proven so already," he chuckled, looking around with his eyes, "are nice in here, in my opinion. You may come and practice here anytime you desire."

"Really??" asked Charlie, clasping his paws and smiling, looking like a kid who can't believe he's being allowed to have a puppy.

A nod that plunged all of Gigaiya's muzzle briefly also pushed Charlie three feet in the air. "Of course," he answered, then smirked wryly as he added, "if you perform for me sometimes."

Charlie grinned and saluted. "Yessir!" he agreed, and Gigaiya chuckled.

"You are a spirited young man, aren't you?" he asked, tilting his head again. "You should be like that more. I prefer this over what I saw jumping off of me yesterday."

"I'm trying," Charlie said, resting his arms on himself again and nodding. "I had a talk with Charizard and Charla."

"Ooh, Charla? You know her?" A nod. The elder grinned. "Tell her I said hello, and that I would appreciate her saying the same once in a while!" He nodded a little. "Regardless, as I was meaning to say, I think you might be interested in a cave of your own here. We have several that are perfect for you--not too big, not too small. There are many all over this ravine, from one end to the other and everywhere in-between."

Charlie raised his eyeridges. "Really?" he asked again. "I mean, I'd like to room with Charizard some, but I think a nice private place to practice would be great. Not saying anything about this place--I'd love to play here sometimes, I know it'd be fun--but I need someplace for myself so I don't annoy the heck out of my new friend."

"Then feel free to stay here, young one!" invited Gigaiya, grinning and tilting his head, eyes closing.

Charlie smiled and accepted. "Thank you," he bowed. "I'll move as soon as I can."

"Well, after picking a place, first," Gigaiya corrected him, eyeing him. "There IS an excellent place or two I know of, though..." His eyes glanced around, pausing in someplace to his right for a moment before he looked back at Charlie. "I could take you."

Charlie grinned. "That'd be great! Thank you so much!" he said.

"It is my pleasure," Gigaiya bowed, muffling himself a bit. "When would you like to go?" he asked.

"Well, if you'd like to talk some more, I can wait," he replied, shrugging. "I'm actually...pretty comfortable..." He admitted this, literally sinking against the paw behind him, with a little bit of an edge.

This made Gigaiya frown. "And what's so wrong about that?" he asked. "I've been feeling negativity towards your own body coming from you. Why?"

"Apart from the fact it ruined my life, and that getting my torso was the worst part of transforming, I don't WANT to be fat," Charlie replied, spreading his arms. "I was thin! I could run! I could jump! I could FLIP, heck! I'm really sorry if I'm offending you, but I'm just not happy with myself the way I am!" He punched his gut some times. "I want all of it to just DIE OFF, already! RRRRR!!"

Gigaiya put his other palm to his chin, pushing aside the fat, and rubbed it whilst he studied Charlie. 'Hmmmmm...He DOES seem much more different than a charizard ought to,' he thought. 'I have a feeling he can...but...there's something else...That, and I have this impression that there's a little psychology going on here that he wouldn't like.' "Are you being defensive about something?" he asked offhandedly.

"DEFENSIVE?! What the heck would I be defensive about? I'm ATTACKING, more than anything," came the somewhat harsh reply as Charlie whipped his head up and gave the glare he'd been giving his front. He tilted his head and raised an eyeridge. "Why?"

A sly smile. 'Yep.' "Nothing, nevermind," Gigaiya lied, shaking his head slightly, rubbing his chin on his stomach with a brushing sound. "Just I'd like it if you would stop hating yourself like that. Your body, every part of it, is your own, and you should respect it. As a pokémon, you won't be ostracized or anything for being big, and you are in much better health than a human of proportionate weight. I mean, look at me," he said, smiling fully and motioning to himself. "I am far heavier than I should be, by your standards, yet I am a healthy charizard of over fifty years of age and counting." He gently prodded the tiny bit, to him, on Charlie. "THIS is nothing but more of you to love. Sure, you cannot do the things you could before with as much grace, but if you try, you can still do almost anything. It would be difficult, but does that not make life more fun, sometimes? People and pokémon need a challenge every so often--that's one of the reasons we both battle each other, be it for competition or worse." He rested his free paw on his own stomach and smiled sagely at the trumpeter. "Just be who you want to be, and get past that which is holding you back without condemning what you have become; rather, you should be embracing it, finding ways it can help you in your days."

Charlie frowned at his stomach, but didn't ignore the elder charizard's words. '...No. There's no way I can accept myself how I am.' He looked away, blushing a little. 'Not yet.' "Could we look for those places you recommended?" he asked, trying to get off the subject.

"One more thing," Gigaiya said quietly.

Chuckling as he remembered Jackie Chan Adventures (I LOVED that show), Charlie (sans blush) turned and smirked wryly up at the speaker. "Yesh?"

Gigaiya smiled warmly. "May I give you something you have probably not had for a long time?" he asked.

"Uhm...if it doesn't hurt, sure, I guess, but what?" Charlie asked, looking up confusedly.

He got his answer when he found himself yelping muffledly in surprise as he was given the biggest hug in his life.

He admitted, later on, to eventually sinking in and, in fact, falling into a light doze from the unarguable comfort of the elder's body and the grateful happiness from the elder's affection. Gigaiya replied that a hug is something that everyone needs to have daily if they expect to live well. It doesn't have to be from someone you love dearly, but as long as the hugger means his/her/its action entirely, doing it completely by will, it's good enough.

**-*-**

Charizard crossed his arms and looked at Charlie that night as he closed his trumpet case. "So, you're moving out?" he asked. "Goin' in with the other shinies?"

"Yes and no," Charlie answered, snapping the clasps and rising, holding the handle in one paw. He faced Charizard and slouched, free paw on his hip. "I'm gonna sleep here still, if you don't mind, but I'm gonna go there sometimes, like for when I practice. This way, I don't annoy the crap outta ya." He smirked at that.

Charizard chuckled, shaking his head. "Great, thanks a lot for the vote of confidence in my patience," he joked.

"Come on, you know you're not very patient to begin with," Charlie waved a paw at him.

Charizard sighed and shrugged, holding his palms up. "Yeah, whatever," he said. He let them down and walked forwards, Charlie turning and walking as they got side-by-side. "So, how's the cave?" Charizard asked.

"Pretty good," Charlie nodded. "It's a small alcove in Gigaiya's cavern that I can sleep and practice in. It's got a nice few crystal formations here and there. I like it." He smiled at the thought of it. "Plus, I can practice out in the main cave for some major acoustics!"

"That's...sound bouncing off stuff, right?" Charizard asked, tilting his head and sweatdropping slightly helplessly.

"The way it bounces," added Charlie, holding a claw. "Close."

They were halfway down the little landbridge from their cave. Charlie looked to the moon and slowed to a stop. Charizard stopped and backed up after he went on without him a few paces. "What is it?"

Charlie smiled faintly, letting out a "Heh". "I'm just thinking about home, that's all," he answered quietly. "I'm still gonna miss it."

"But ain't this your home, now, too?" Charizard asked.

"Eh?" Charlie looked over at him. Charizard was slouching, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. He was still smiling a bit, though.

Charizard continued, "I know what it's like to have two homes. This is home for me, but being with Ash is sorta home, too. It's 'cuz I'm around friends again and I'm always able to fight somebody, and I feel comfortable." He smiled. "But I'm not too homesick, since there are always jerks to challenge and I've got someone here I'm comfortable around...well, two someones, now," he added, grinning briefly. Charlie got the meaning and blushed, rubbing the back of his neck and smiling sheepishly. Charizard closed his eyes and raised his chin arrogantly. "Heh, yeah, I guess it's a big thing if I consider someone a good friend, even after only a few days," he said. He laughed and blocked the playful smack Charlie tried to give him. "Sheesh, take a joke already, will ya?" he asked, grinning. "You're as bad as Charla!"

Charlie smirked and snorted, whipping his head one way. "Yeah--we've gotta keep your big head from outgrowing your shoulders!" he reasoned.

"Hey, there's a good reason I've got a big head, yannow!" Charizard fumed, though he was still smiling. "Want me to show ya?"

Charlie grinned and held a claw. He trotted over a ways off and hid his trumpet case among some rocks. He trotted back and slid a bit in front of Charizard. "Why not?" he asked, tilting his head.

Charizard raised his eyeridges. "Wow, you're in a good mood," he noted before grinning competitively and getting into stance. "I'm on a roll, and yer not gonna stop it, I warn ya!" he cautioned. "Now let's see if you can do more than make balloon pokémon!"

"My thoughts exactly!" Charlie agreed, a growl tinting his voice.

Without further ado, the two stomped once, roared, and charged at each other, wings open to catch the wind and let them half-glide in a dash. They met in a wrestling grapple, and Charizard found himself uncomfortably near the ground and far back. 'Shit! I forgot how heavy this guy is!!' he berated himself, grunting and pushing down his tail to get back in the fight. 'Good thing I'm stronger than 'im,' he added, smirking as he was standing again in a second. In three more, he was over Charlie.

Charlie was grunting, grimacing from the strain of his muscles. His arms in terms of gripping were unstoppable if he was given the chance to use only them, but wrestling needed almost his whole muscular system. His legs had been getting stronger as he nearly waddled about in charizard form more, but they weren't strong enough. Charizard pressed his belly practically flat as he made Charlie bend backwards. Both were at a slight, if any, disadvantage from this: Charizard's feet weren't as flat on the ground as he was used to because the belly pushed him upwards, and Charlie wasn't able to make this a good situation from the bad one it was. Charlie fought with all his might, but Charizard threw him down hard to the side. He crashed to the ground, though not too far, thankfully, and made a deep slamming sound.

Charizard stood, waiting for him to rise. "Well, what would you call that sorry excuse for an attempt?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"A fail," Charlie replied, wincing slightly as he got up again. He paused midway, paw on and slightly in knee. "But not an epic fail."

"Ruh?" Charizard went, lifting and tilting his head like a curious dog. "What do you mean? Ain't it failURE?"

"It's Human slang," explained Charlie, pushing himself up to his other foot and getting into a ready stance. "Now let's go!" He dashed forwards again.

Charizard sighed and shook his head before dodging to the side, grabbing his tail, and, with a roar and some effort, using Vital Throw and bringing the big guy to the rock. As he got up again, Charizard breathed out a small sigh, looking at his arms. "Whew! Maybe I oughta just lift you instead of boulders when I'm weight training," he half-joked.

"Go ahead," Charlie shrugged, getting onto his footpaws once more. He wasn't happy, but he felt himself a lot more ready for more battle than he predicted he would. He thought for a moment. 'Maybe if I try and just melee attack him...' He nodded and got into stance--just in time to find a barreling Charizard coming his way. He suddenly had a quick idea and crouched. He came up in a jumping, downsweep-assisted Sky Uppercut at the right moment, slamming into Charizard's jaw. He spun once and landed right as Charizard did.

Charizard took some steps back as soon as he hit the rock again, rubbing his jaw. "Nnngh...Not bad," he complimented. "But that's just 'cuz you got lucky!" He jumped, taking flight, and vanished.

Charlie made a perfect yeek face, realizing, "Aerial Ace!" seconds before he was thrown back again.

"You're just too slow," Charizard informed, landing with crossed arms and displeased look. "You're not used to how heavy you are. Ain't you gonna use that, though?" he raised an eyeridge.

Charlie grunted, getting up again--slower this time. Hearing this, he growled and shot a look at his stomach. "Like hell!" he spat, looking up again. "I ain't gonna depend on this fucking thing!"

"You don't need to DEPEND on it, dullard," Charizard said as if it were the most obvious thing ever and Charlie was acting stupid. "Life ain't the same old thing--you're not gonna be given the same kinds of situations over and over again." He dodged and caught a dashing and feinting Slam. Charlie twisted again, ripping his thinly fat tail out of Charizard's grip and launching a kick to his stomach, but Charizard tighted his abdominals and grunted, taking it with less damage than intended, continuing, "You're not gonna have the luxury of facing off slow guys or pokémon you can take with your ranged fire attacks."

Charlie roared, stomped his foot down, leaned forwards and started punching as fast as he could. Each time, he missed, was blocked, or experienced the mixture and was deflected. Charizard kept this up, going on, "That also means that you'll be able to have the times you can get away with those. I'd hate being a lardtail as much as you do, but I'd find ways to use my weight to my adVANTAGE!" On this, he grabbed both paws, one after the other, and yanked Charlie close.

The shiny let a short cry out from the pain of his relatively small arms having to carry his full weight so quickly. He was then caught in a bear hug in arms just as powerful at gripping as his are while he saw the world fall away. He narrowed his eyes while he looked down to see this before looking up again at Charizard, growling.

"I'm sure Ash would make me do the same thing," Charizard went on, looking seriously at Charlie. He spun around before throwing him forwards through the air. Charlie yelped and fell a second before opening his wings and, barely, pulling up into a glide. He leaned back and up to flap up to Charizard. Charizard bowed his head, his eyes being the only thing showing to him. "Quit acting like a hatchling charmander and start acting like the big, tough, grown charizard you are--quit being closed-minded! Battles aren't simple contests or competitions!" He waved his arm, throwing nothing away, and looked more up, mouth visible once again. It was frowning. "This ain't music! There's nothing set for you to follow and there're different rules you've gotta go by--and you can bend a lotta them!"

"Which means this is improv!" Charlie shouted back in Human. He clenched his fists and growled in Charizard again. "Improv, or improvisation, is a part of lots of Jazz. The one doing it has to do whatever they can cook up on the spot, but it can't just be willy-nilly notes; you gotta feel the flow of the music and follow the chords at least somewhat if you wanna do good."

"And I bet nobody wants to hear all high shit," Charizard commented, crossing his arms and holding his head up and away, giving a disproving look with one eye. "Just bite the bullet, admit the fact you're a fatass, and drop some lows sometimes!"

Charlie hesitated at this momentarily before growling and coming at him again. Charizard flew at him, as well, but he feinted away, rolling aside and letting him pass by. His tail was extended far behind him, and Charlie was able to realize this in time to grab it and bring him with as he sailed forth again. He pulled with all his might and sent Charizard colliding with the rock around their cave, making him roar shortly in pain. He quickly completed the flip-spin the throw forced him into, Slamming once again, this time downwards. Charizard, though, to his horror, was able to glide up again half an inch from the stone below.

Charizard swooped up and turned to hover and face him again, the two having changed places in the air. "See? You're so fat and heavy, you were able to take me with you from your momentum!" Charizard said, pointing.

Charlie blinked in surprise. "It...wasn't my strength?" he asked.

"The throw was, but that would NOT have happened without your weight!" Charizard said, waving his paw in the "no way" gesture. He looked at him. "Go ahead and hate your gut like it was the guy who killed everyone you love, but it's a part of you. And when it comes to fighting and battles, you've gotta use every square INCH of your body!" He tightened a fist at this. "Put enough effort into it, and you'll be able to do stuff that'll scare the shit outta everyone, know what I mean?"

"Flying's hard enough!" Charlie frowned. "You think I can actually move fast enough to...?"

Charizard crossed his arms and nodded. "Damn right." He flew over and met in a clash in midair with him. After a few traded blows, he grabbed Charlie again and used a particularly painful Seismic Toss. He landed gently half on his stomach, leaning over and looking down at Charlie's face as the dust cleared to reveal a slight crater around his body.

Charlie groaned and came to a minute later, only to find the glare facing him from Charizard. "Dammit, press harder on that thing, wouldja?" he asked, grunting.

Charizard gladly obliged. Charlie's eyes widened in pain as he protested it. "You want more pain?" asked Charizard quietly.

"Like hell!" Charlie replied. He was breathing heavily, the fatigue getting to him a bit.

"Then you're spendin' some time with me every day, 'cuz I won't have any good friend of mine turn into an idiot on the battlefield the first time he's reminded of his gut," Charizard declared, face hard but eyes softening a little.

Charlie saw this and stopped struggling. 'He...He's serious,' he realized. 'He cares for me...'

Charizard waited for a bit, the two staying like that, until he asked, "Well? Got that, tutti-frutti?"

Charlie half-eyed at this despite the pain his stomach was in. "Sure, 's'long as you don't call me that anymore," he replied.

Charizard smirked and let off the pressure. Charlie got up from under him and the two stood, facing each other. "Well, that's another victory," Charizard said, grinning.

Charlie laughed. "Oh, come on, that was unfair!" he protested. "I don't know if I'm gonna be able to come back tomorrow, I'll be so sore."

"Get used to it, chubby," Charizard shook his head, laughing a bit, "'cuz you're a pokémon, now. You gotta be ready for ANYTHING."

Charlie stood, smiling and panting slightly. Then he nodded. "Right." He staggered over to the rocks where his trumpet was.

"Aw, shit, you wuss," Charizard groaned, jogging over and putting one of his arms over his shoulders. "Your Defense is high, I'll give you that, but you're still so weak that Seismic Toss kicked your ass pretty hard. That, and you're acting like a baby," he grumbled, though he didn't seem too peeved.

"...Heh..." Charlie's eyes went half-lidded and calm, a small smile on his scaly lips. They took off towards the spring together. "Thanks, Charizard," the trumpet player said softly.

"Yeah, you needed it," Charizard smiled at him. "All of it."

**-*-**

Gigaiya, sitting in his cave and blowing smoke rings for the heck of it while waiting, was surprised when Charizard came in with Charlie later that night. Charizard just dropped him off on top of the elder charizard before he turned and, suppressing a charizard equivilant to a "WHEEEE!!", trampolined a couple times on the mound of flesh to take off. Charlie then told Gigaiya about the sparring match they'd had.

"He's having me train with him daily, now," he finished. He groaned and looked at his gut. "I have to learn how to use this thing to my advantage, as much as I hate it."

"You don't wish to give it any credit, don't want to have a reason to respect it, don't desire to know that it wouldn't be that bad to keep it," interpreted Gigaiya sagely right away. He pressed a clawpad to the gut as he pressed a look to his eyes. "You need to stop treating this like it's the worst thing in the world, already," he said, a little softly. "It's just your body. I don't understand how you can hate it so much! I love mine because it's a part of me. I'm also grateful I have it instead of no middle at all, like how someone with a short tail should be grateful of having a tail at all. There is an advantage to be had with almost anything, be it small or great. And in my opinion, being so fat as you are is a great advantage." He pulled his clawpad away and laced his claws together as well as he could with so few digits.

"Well, of course you'd think that," Charlie mumbled, looking away to hide his eyeroll.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Gigaiya said, closing his eyes and looking up slightly. Charlie twitched and froze. 'I thought he couldn't hear me--!' Gigaiya opened his eyes and nodded his head while Charlie turned back to him, blushing. He smiled. "I agree with Charizard and am glad he's doing this," he said. "It will be a grand chance for you to learn many things--how to be a pokémon, how to fight in your new body, and how to respect yourself." He held a finger up as Charlie made to comment. "Up-bup-bup-bup! To be very blunt and frank, which I hate to be but have to at times: You're fat, now deal with it." He was very firm in his voice, speaking as loud as he would if it were someone his size right next to him that he was talking to. Softer, he added, "I'm not asking you to love being fat as much as I will admit I do--of course, not saying the reasons I gave before are lies, as they are as much a truth as the fact you are here on me at this second--but I'm asking you to stop treating it as if, as you said Charizard had said, it had killed all those you hold dear. It didn't. Nobody did. Nobody, I dearly hope, ever will--at least, not if you have something to say about it. But to have something to say to begin with..."

He carefully scooped up Charlie into his paws and brought him to look right into his eyes. Charlie was amazed at how powerful and enormous they were. Addressing the little guy in Human, Gigaiya said with a little hint of askance, "Charles Pacific, to have a say to begin with, you must quit damning the body that destiny has given you. Promise me you'll try."

Charlie, before those eyes, squirmed, unsure what to do. He wanted to reject it at first, but he stopped himself after the second sentence. 'But...But...' "But...I...I can't," he replied in slight distress, holding his paws out to his sides to gesticulate. "I mean...I'm not, I'm not damning my body, I'm just--"

"--being silly," interrupted Gigaiya, frowning a bit. "Part of why I'm so concerned about this is because you're acting like a fool, and I'm sure it's not to entertain those around you. You genuinely look like you hate your stomach when you hit it, and it's silly because you know that you're only hurting yourself."

"Well, it gets bigger EVERY TIME I eat ANYTHING with fat in it! And it gets bigger RIGHT AFTER!!" Charlie cried, eyes getting wet as he waved his arms emphatically. "It got harder and harder for me to fly from Sinnoh to here because I was gaining ten to twenty pounds each time I landed and ate a meal! And it's a freak of nature when I try and force it to get smaller the old fashioned way. Not even a snorlax's stomach should create noises that powerful!! That was so EMBARRASSING!! And it kept me from doing ANYTHING the day it came in when I was first changing!!" Tears were coming down his cheeks as he clenched his eyes and roared, "I HATE IT AND WILL DO ANYTHING SHORT OF LOPPING IT OFF TO MAKE IT GO AWAY!!" He raised his fist to punch it, flames appearing around it.

Gigaiya growled and snapped out. In a second, Charlie was in his mouth and his trumpet case falling through the air from where it had just lost its platform. Before the musician could realize what was going on, the elder slammed him up to the roof of his mouth with the tip of his tongue. He held him there for a few moments before slowly easing the pressure. He felt his body start to slide back, so he maneuvered the muscle under him and lowered him down slowly. Opening wide, he brought him out and looked at him, worried yet losing his patience, like a parent.

Charlie, covered in saliva, was whimpering muffledly, face buried in his gut. Gigaiya gently blew warm air over him, drying him of the saliva, and deposited him into his paws once more. He blew a bit more to dry where his tongue was before stopping and looking at him again. "Forgive me--you needed a time-out," he said quietly. "I wouldn't have done that if you weren't so big--most would have been hurt by my tongue slamming them like that." He took one paw, shifting him to hold entirely in one (to him, Charlie was about the size of a nectarine) while he gently petted him with the other. "There, there..."

Charlie sniffed and looked up. Here he was, someone who'd been a human for as long as he'd known, now turned into an obese shiny charizard, and he was being comforted by the largest life form he'd seen outside a forest. "...It's just...I..."

"You see your arms around yourself right now?" asked Gigaiya softly.

Charlie looked down and saw. His arms were slightly crossed on his front, since he'd been crying as if on a desk or table, and they remained in this position. He nodded.

"Part them--let them rest comfortably."

Charlie gave up. He was both emotionally weakened from the force of his reasons to hate his stomach and curious about what Gigaiya was having him do. He let his arms spread, paws dragging, until he stopped, comfortable in his leaning-forward position.

"Rest your neck on it, too, and let your weight settle on it."

Reluctantly, Charlie did as he was told. He even closed his eyes, which saved Gigaiya breath.

Gigaiya waited for a long minute. "Alright," he said very carefully, "tell me: What do you feel from it?"

Charlie, eyes still closed, thought for a moment and reported, "I feel...warmth."

"Is it the warmth of a hot fire, threatening to burn you with hatred and ill will?"

"No," Charlie shook his head. "It's..." He stopped. '...My God, I think I see what he's getting at...' Then, taking a large swallow and waiting for it to travel the length of his neck, he tried again in Human. "It's...a benign warmth...gentle."

"What else? What else do you feel from it?"

"I feel...definition--like, the fact it's there. Reality."

"What, the reality of evil, coming to cause pain and sadness?"

"No...just...It's the reality of...existing. It isn't anything but...a...a part of my body..."

"...Open your eyes, Charlie."

Charlie opened his eyes to find a benevolently smiling elder looking at him. "You saw no reason to outright hate it, did you."

Charlie sat up straighter, bringing his arms up higher so that his upper arms were off himself, as he was spoken to. He frowned a little begrudgingly and shook his head slowly. "I didn't," he confirmed. "I found a part of my body that was there, a part that was warm and harmless."

"Exactly," nodded Gigaiya. "It's just as natural as your arm or your lip." He tilted his head slightly. "There's no logical reason to completely hate your body. Doing so only does harm in the long run. So, do you hate your own belly?"

Charlie looked down at his stomach again. To his amazement, for the first time, all he saw was his stomach. That's it. A big, fat gut. Nothing more sinister than that. He shook his head, still shaking it as he looked up again. "I...I don't," he answered. He stopped and looked again, then tilted his head, shifting his weight. "I mean, I don't hate it, but I don't like it, either," he added on. He patted a paw on it. "But I...I don't think I want it off of me without my permission, just as much as I don't want my leg or a tooth."

"Isn't that a better feeling than what you had before?" Gigaiya asked.

Charlie nodded, smiling a little. "Yeah, it is."

"Now...do you think it would be alright if you used the fact that you happen to be very fat in battle?"

Charlie paused, looking down once more. Gigaiya wondered if he wasn't ready yet after a few seconds went by. Then, Charlie smirked and slapped his stomach, making it wiggle a little. "Awright, ya sonuva bitch," he addressed it in a loud voice, "if yer gonna be hangin' offa me, yer gonna hafta pay some rent by workin' with me." He prodded it with one paw while putting the other on his hip. "From here on, yer hide is MINE, and yer gonna help me kick some ass when I need ya, got it?...Good!" He slapped it again before looking up and nodding at Gigaiya, smirking with a determined face on. "You betcha!" he finally answered.

Gigaiya rumbled with a deep chuckle. A nearby cluster of crystals clearly rang a soft concert Bb. "Thank you, Charlie," he said, holding him close to him, covering him briefly before bringing him out again. To his secret, further satisfaction, Charlie didn't look unhappy about being surrounded by lard for a moment at all. Gigaiya grinned at him. "You were worrying me a great deal. But now, you're going to start respecting your body for what it is, right?" A nod. "You'll be glad for it, I promise. Because, trust me..." A mischievous grin. "There is no more satisfying a feeling than a successful Body Slam attack when you are overweight--and it only gets better the more you are. Believe me. I know." His eyeridges narrowed to make him look very impish.

Charlie got what he meant and began to snort before the two shared a round of laughter that echoed halfway throughout the entire valley. Charizard looked over his shoulder as he flew a scenic route home and smiled. "Thanks, Your Lardiness," he said quietly. With a flap, he was off.

- - -

Yeah, I know it's long and weird, but bear with me for ONE more chapter! ^_^;


	4. Resuscitation

***'*,*'* Chapter Four – Resuscitation *'*,*'***

A couple more days passed. Charlie practiced hard, both on his trumpet and his fighting skills. Charizard proved to be a better Trainer than he thought himself to be. Charlie, though not hating his belly anymore, still often cursed it and hit it. It wasn't as bad, however, and there was less rage in his eyes while he did it if you looked close enough.

Charlie sighed, looking up into the sky one morning, sitting on the bluff by Charizard's cave. Charizard and Charla came up and sat on either side of him. "What's up?" asked Charla.

Charlie shook his head. "Nothing," he replied. "Just...thinking..."

"About what?" Charizard asked.

"Really wondering," Charlie shrugged. "About my friends..."

**-*-**

Toby and Ariko went up the path together, panting slightly from the exertion. The very late afternoon sun bore down on their backs. Both had normal school backpacks on. "Phoo, this is a lot of work," Toby groaned.

"And you'd think we're being crazy," Ariko nodded. They stopped at the gates. "Well, we're here," she said. She looked over. "You wanna do the honors?"

"Uhm...Sure!" Toby answered.

"Then you know what to do," Ariko smirked, the two turning towards each other.

""Rock, Grass, Steel!"...AUGH!"

It didn't make that much sense as an analogy to rock-paper-scissors--until you realize where each item comes from, what it is made of, or what it is. (Plus, GrassRockSteel, and Grass is not very effective against Steel.) Regardless, Ariko won. She turned and rapped on the gate. "Excuse me?" she called. "Ms. Liza? Are you there?"

Liza poked her head out of her door. She raised her eyebrows at the two young visitors. "Hm?" She came out, closed the door behind her, and walked over to open the gate, smiling. "Good afternoon!" she greeted. "What brings you here so late in the day?"

Ariko and Toby smiled, nodding, and walked in. "Well, we're here because we've got to ask you some things," Toby told her. "And, well, you're probably gonna think we're freaks."

"Which we are," Ariko said quickly.

Liza giggled. "Well, try me," she said, closing the gate and turning, a beckoning arm over her shoulder.

Inside Liza's house, the two Band geeks sat on a couch, slinging off their bags. Liza sat in a chair. "Alright, now, have you seen a shiny charizard come this way recently?" began Ariko.

Liza raised her eyebrows sharply. "A...You, too?" she asked, leaning forwards a little. "I mean, do you happen to be looking for a young man named Charlie Pacific?"

Toby and Ariko chuckled. "I take it his mom got here before us?" Toby asked. "Yeah, she left his trumpet in your care. You see him here yet?"

Liza didn't know what to do. "Um..." She made an unsure face. "Er...What do YOU think happened to him?" she tried to change the subject.

"Well, we've got reason to believe he's closely related to the black charizard," Ariko said, holding up a finger.

"That is, well, if he's not very physically close to it," Toby shrugged. "Like, if he's not riding it or something. Then we KNOW he's wherever it is."

"Why do you think this? Like, how'd you find out about it, how'd you get evidence, what led you here?" Liza interrogated. "I'm just curious."

"Well, we found out from rumors after our section leader never came to practice," Ariko started answering, half-eyeing at the memory. "It REALLY doesn't help that he's integral in more than a few sets."

"So, since we were worried, we called his house," Toby went on. "His mom said he was missing, and she told us about the black charizard. She seemed worred he'd been kidnapped, I think, though I frankly dunno why anyone'd wanna steal him..." He narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice dramatically. "Unless it's from another marching band who wants to sabotage our performance," he added.

Liza laughed. "I don't know much about marching bands," she raised an eyebrow as she smiled, "but I doubt it's that hardcore."

"Take a look at our Band director," Ariko said flatly, half-eyeing again with her own smile. "Anyway," she continued, eyes normal again, "we decided then and there that we needed to find him."

"Why? Wouldn't that hurt you guys and the band if you left?" Liza wondered, looking interested as she crossed her arms.

"Yeah, but we need to kick his ass for ditchin' us in the first place," Toby chuckled, smirking. "Besides, he's our friend. We can't just let him be."

Liza widened her eyes. 'Their friend? They'd go through the trouble of going across regions for a friend...?'

"Anyway, we didn't want to tick off everyone too much, so we buckled down and memorized our drills before leaving," Ariko contined. "Then, we packed and went off, following leads we came up with after asking around. We were able to get good rides, thankfully, but it wasn't easy."

"The asking around was the hard part, in my opinion," Toby said, holding his chin and resting his elbow on his leg. "Lots of people thought we were crazy, asking if they'd seen a shiny charizard fly by. They thought we were joking after we explained that we were looking for a friend who might be related to it."

"I can see why," Liza muttered, sweatdropping with a smile. "After all, it's pretty far-fetched."

""WHERE?!"" Both whipped their heads left and right, searching eyes on their faces. Liza smacked her forehead, berating herself about how she walked into that one as they laughed.

"So, eventually, the leads brought us to someone saying that she saw a black and white charizard going towards the Charicific Valley," Ariko went on. "We also saw his mom in the window of a car we passed when it was waiting for the light to change, and it was coming from that way."

"We knew then that we were on the right track," Toby nodded, arms crossed.

"So, we went to a cheap hotel and talked it over a bit," Ariko said. She opened her bag and brought out a very large, black bag. It looked like a short garment bag. "We decided to order something for him as an incentive to get his ass back to Band with us."

"Used up, like, all our cash, practically," Toby laughed. "We waited for it to be delivered and now we're here."

"We've gotta get back home, now, though," Ariko said, looking sorry. "We've got to, or else we'll never make the final rehearsal before our first competition begins. That's the one where we also have the Band Dinner, where all the parents come over."

"My dad's gonna skin me alive already," Toby sweatdropped, making the T_T face. "I don't wanna have him throw salt and lemon juice all over me afterwards."

Liza sweatdropped at the macabre idea, chuckling nervously. "Well, thanks for telling me," she said. "If I see him, I'll pass on the--"

"Here," Ariko interrupted, thrusting the bag to her. "Just give him this, that's it. We know he'll be here soon."

Liza looked at it, blinking, before smiling and taking it and looking at them. "I'll pass it on," she promised with a nod.

Toby and Ariko smiled, standing. "Spanks," Toby said, reaching down and hoisting his bag up and onto his shoulders. "We'll be walking back, now. Wish we could come here again sometime; Johto's so much cooler than Sinnoh in some ways!"

"You just wanna come here because of Claire, the Gym Leader, don't you?" Ariko asked slyly.

Toby laughed, closing his eyes and rubbing the back of his head helplessly. "Aw, ya got me!!" he confessed, and they laughed.

Liza smiled up at them, chuckling a bit. 'Charlie has such great friends,' she thought.

After seeing them out the gates and waving good-bye, Liza returned home, the bag still in her arms. She wondered if she should open it--but she decided not to. Not unless...

As she walked back, Charla bugled and made her turn her head. "Ah, Charla!" Liza waved. "You missed a couple of guests!"

Charla raised her eyeridges as she landed. She looked at the black bag slumped in her arms and tilted her head quizzically.

"They were looking for Charlie, too," Liza explained, smiling forlornly. "I don't know if they know about him." She heard a gust of wind and looked up.

Charla was gone.

**-*-**

Charizard squirmed uncertainly, not comfortable with his seat. "Um...Sorry, but couldn't I sit on a rock or something? I...like firm seats," he apologized, turning and looking up.

Gigaiya chuckled and held up his arms, looking around. "Go ahead," he insisted, "take what you can find."

Charizard looked around the walls of the elder shiny's cave. They were very smooth, and the only things that stuck out were sharp crystals. He frowned. "Groom..."

They heard a trumpet sound from deeper in the cavern and turned their heads. "What's he doing?" asked Charizard. "He's been playing the same note for a while..."

"Tuning," Gigaiya explained.

Just then, Charla came swooping in. "Elder Gigaiya!" she called breathlessly, stopping and hovering in front of his face.

Gigaiya grinned brightly. "Oh, little Charla!!" he greeted heartily. "What a pleasant surprise!"

Charla smiled apologetically, tilting her head. "I'm sorry, but we don't have time to talk," she told him. "I'm here to ask if you've seen Charlie."

"He's in his chamber," Gigaiya answered after a disappointed sigh. He paused while another trumpet note echoed. "He's tuning."

"Why is Charizard here?" Charla asked confusedly, looking down to see him. He bugled at her happily.

"To hear him perform," replied Gigaiya. "If you need him, it can wait until he is finished, can't it?" he asked, smiling sagely at her.

She chewed her lip. "Um...well...erm..." She sighed. "Yeah, I guess," she gave in. She simply stopped flapping, letting herself fall down. She landed a few seconds' falling later, ending up with only the top of her bow sticking out of Gigaiya. A second later, though, she came popping right back up, bouncing on his gut for a few times, giggling despite her hurried mood.

Charizard's face went a little blue at this. "That's..." he began before shuddering. "No offense, Your Lardiness," he said up to him, "but I'd NEVER do that..."

"Charizard!" scolded Charla, slapping him upside the head.

Gigaiya just chortled.

Meanwhile, in his cave, Charlie was standing next to a crystal, fiddling with his trumpet--though it looked like he was standing very still. "Okay..." He withdrew his paw from the mouthpiece, brought it to his lips again, and played a concert Bb. To his delight, the crystal began to gently hum the same note. He stopped, smiling. "Finally!" he nodded. "It's in perfect tune!" He turned and dashed out the tunnel his chamber was connected to the main cavern with. And he didn't need his wings, either. In the last couple days, he'd been getting very good at using his body--Charizard complimented how he was a fast learner.

"It almost looks natural to you, now," he had commented earlier that day.

"It FEELS almost natural," described Charlie, a little perturbed. "It's only been, like, two and a half days, but I can run, fly, and fight pretty decently now!"

"Yeah, you didn't utterly fail in our spar this time!" belly-laughed Charizard.

Now, Charlie was ready with something else. Taking his trumpet in one paw and the case in the other, he flew easily through the semi-still air of the cavern, gliding as much as he could to conserve breath. He soon got close enough to his chosen spot on Gigaiya. He dropped, diving, and flipped right before landing. He sank in a bit, but, given his broader surface area below him, he didn't go nearly as far as Charla. He popped up, too, after a second, and bounced to a halt, setting down his case. He then turned and looked at his audience.

High up was Gigaiya, lying on his back and resting his carlike head and thick neck against the wall. Sitting side by side on his chest were Charizard and Charla. Charlie smiled and waddled over, the soft terrain forcing him to move so. He stopped when he was ten feet away and bowed. "This is my solo that I did last year at the Solo & Ensemble festival," he introduced. "It's a class A, and a favorite of mine. I don't have the accompaniment, but it's called a 'solo' for a reason," he chuckled. He took a deep breath. "Well, um, I hope you guys like it," he said, putting it to his lips. "It's taken a while for me to get used to playing like this, but I think this should prove I've gotten the hang of it." He closed his eyes, taking another deep breath.

Charizard opened his mouth, but Charla shushed him immediately.

Charlie heard nothing. He saw nothing. He felt nothing. Just his body and the beat he was tapping out, memory starting the accompaniment in his head. Below him, small ripples went out across the white surface he stood on and slightly in. He stopped tapping and took a deep breath.

All was lost to everyone as he began to play. Watching him, listening to him, feeling the vibrations the sound made within the fat around him, it started to seem as if he were all there was. The world started to blacken out of focus as they focused on him, the only clear spot remaining. The light filtering in from above became a spotlight as he played beautifully. The thing that made it the more mystifying was the way he moved. Some instrumentalists bob with their playing, and he did, too. His long neck made it that much more expressive. His head swayed to and fro, hither and tither, as he played out the song of sweet, smooth jazz he had learned. One could almost start to hear the accompaniment on the piano and drumset as he continued. It quieted to disappear as he reached a climax, going slowly up up..up...up....uuup....and coming down in a complicated, increasingly fast series of notes that must have taken an age to get down, especially in his new state. Then he got down again, and the imaginary background noise came back in. He played the main bars again, this time with some embellishments, as he brought it to a close, ending it with a diminuendoing, long, sonorous note that echoed off of the walls around him. And when he opened his eyes, brought the trumpet away and his head up, and took in a breath, the whole world, for both audience and performer, came flowing back in. He looked at them for a second, smiling and panting slightly, before he bowed. They applauded with sincere delight, and the sounds of the outside world returned at last.

Charizard was giving a happily impressed look, eyes wide in amazement. Charla gave a wide grin, eyes closed. Gigaiya gave a broad, proud, touched smile. Charlie came up again and nodded, thanking them. They gradually stopped. He looked joyously at his trumpet in his paw. "At least I can still play," he said quietly.

Charla raised her eyeridges. "Goh!" She quickly extricated herself from the blob and ran over as fast as she could, lifting her footpaws like someone running in half-calf-deep water. "Charlie! I almost forgot!"

"Hm?" Charlie looked up. He had sat down on one belly and was resting his case on another. He opened it without looking. "What is it?"

Charla smiled and leaned down to look at him better. "Liza said two people were looking for you," she said. "They left you something."

"Two people...?" Charlie repeated, raising his eyeridges. "I wonder who..." He hurriedly put his case away and stood up. Bowing, he said, "Thank you, Gigaiya, for listening. You're a great friend."

Gigaiya smiled, eyes closing. "It was my complete pleasure to hear your amazing playing," he complimented.

Charlie nodded and turned. "I'm gonna see what this's all about," he informed everyone, trotting forward to bounce and take off.

"Hey, I'm coming, too," Charizard called, getting up hastily and bouncing after him. Over his shoulder, he said, "You're not half bad, Your Lardiness!"

"Thank you!" Gigaiya nodded. "See? We're not as bad as you think!"

Charizard nodded and looked forwards in time to take off. He joined Charlie and Charla as they left.

Gigaiya smiled again, resting his paws on top of him as they left. "I hope he'll be back soon," he said. "Both of them."

**-*-**

It was sunset by the time Charlie landed quickly (with a tiny crater around each footpaw) in front of the hut. He winced at the shock, giving his friends time to land behind and beside him (with more grace and no craters) and Liza time to come rushing out.

"Charlie!" she cried in surprise. "What're you doing here?" She paused, hand to mouth, as a thought occurred. "Did Charla tell you?"

"Yeah," Charlie nodded in Human. He went over close to her, arms out and paws up. "Who were they? Names? Descriptions?" He took a step with each question, worried and wondering who it could be.

Liza mrfed when she was bumped back by his bulging front. "Um...They were a pair of teenagers," she answered. "They didn't say their names."

"Could I see what they left?" Charlie asked, looking past her shoulder. "Is it that bag?"

"Yeah," Liza nodded, turning. "Hang on..." She went in, took it off the table it was on, and came back with it in her holding-out arms. "Here. I haven't opened it," she assured him.

Charlie took it and instantly froze, feeling the inside. "Floppy..." He stepped back and, using his stomach to help him with a rest, searched for an opening to the bag. He found a zipper and opened it. After he did, he gasped and nearly froze again, peering inside.

"What is it?" Charizard asked.

"I don't believe it," Charlie whispered. His face went into a depressed smile as he brought it out. It was a marching coat, buttoned and zipped. It appeared to be a very large one at first before one realized it was only very wide at the torso; it was sized for a person of normal teenager height, otherwise. The jacket's left flap covered the majority of the front when it was done up as it was then. The folded-back upper corner of the flap was the main difference between other marching coats. Instead of flat fabric with a design, it had a four-layer white linen ruffle going down. When Charlie showed it, the girls gasped at it, surprised and attracted to it. On what would be the left and right edges of the front when it was worn, the jacket had six reasonably big, slightly domed, round brass buttons with, instead of lyres, plain stars. (This was the Pokémon world; the artists would have a conniption trying to redraw the lyres on his buttons each frame. That, and I didn't want to draw tiny lyres on his picture.) Two bone-like ribs of embellishing, one smaller and on the bottom of the other, were underneath the ruffle flap. Beneath that and made to fit perfectly into the one on the other flap when the jacket was closed was an arcing "V' of the same embellishing, separating colors.

The sleeves were plain cloth until the forearms. There, already attached, were large cuffs, pointing out at the elbows. These were bordered around the sheets of fabric they were made of (they folded around and stuck ends to ends with velcro or other attachments) and, at the elbow end, had a two-inch stripe. The rest was another color. On the upper arms were single strips of the embellishing lines that also made up the borders of the cuffs and other lines on the jacket. These strips made little figure 8's going over one line, looping around, becoming that one line as it went under two, and looping back up to rejoin the straight line smoothly. On each shoulder was a strap, like on most to all marching and military coats. Star-etched buttons fastened them, too.

On the back was mostly a comparatively plain sight. The embellishing, after making another, smaller "V" on the sides, made a straight line across. In a regal font--not too fancy like Old English lettering, but not too casual as Arial--was a giant "M" in silver embroidering.

The edges of the collar and the hems of the main garment itself were bordered in black. The embellishing was gold. The main color of the coat--the upper part of the jacket and the sleeves--was, of all colors in the bright spectrum of marching coats, brown. Dark violet was the color for the bottom part of the coat, as well as the two-inch stripe on the cuffs. The main part of the cuffs were deep blue.

Now, before Charlie could reveal the back, he had to deal with a large note taped over almost the entire back. He took it off and read it: "If you can't have it, put it on one of the big guys there." He looked back from it, raising an eyeridge. "Hhhhuh?" He lowered it to look at the back. When he saw the additions to the back that he knew weren't on the original coat, he froze again, eyes becoming as wide as plates and his mouth getting wider by the moment.

Between the arches of the "M" were two long, relatively wide slits, bordered by black hemwork. Coming half a foot down from them were a series of five buttons that went all the way down until the slits they kept together ended at the end of the coat bottom.

"What is it?" Charizard asked, looking over. He raised an eyeridge when he saw the slits. "Are those normally there? Wouldn't a human's back get cold with those holes?" he asked.

"Yes, a human's back would get cold," confirmed Charlie in barely any voice at all. He dropped the note and held up the jacket, looking at it. His mouth curved into a thoroughly touched smile, eyes dampening. "They're wingholes."

Everyone gasped, then made a small commotion while Charlie wasted no more time. He undid the clasps holding the ruffle and the bottom of the left flap to the right one, unzipped the zipper down the middle, turned it around, undid all the buttons, turned it again, and finally whipped it about, putting it on at the same time. It went perfectly over his wings, and he only had to leave two buttons undone to be comfortable. To his further and immense surprise, it was actually a bit big for him in front, giving him at least fifteen or twenty pounds' worth until it fit him just right. He turned about, arms out as he, excitedly smiling, moved his head about to look at himself. He smiled and stopped, holding his paws up and looking at them. "Guys..." he whispered.

"Charlie! You look great!" Liza complimented. She frowned. "But...how did they know you were...?"

Charlie cut her off abruptly with a big hug. He gave the others hugs, too, much to Charizard's embarrassment. He parted with Charla last, eyes swimming as he looked at everyone. "Thank you so much, everyone," he nodded gratefully. "I'll never, ever forget you." He looked up in the sky. "But...it's time for me to go home..." He looked back again and close-eyed smiled. "I'm sad, though, since I'm leaving home to go home."

Charizard, Charla, and Liza widened their eyes, with Charizard's face twisting into horror, Charla's into happiness, and Liza's into worry. "...B...But you're coming back, right?" Charizard asked, stepping forwards and grabbing an arm.

"(Meep! Careful with the claws!) ...Heh, yeah, I swear," promised the coat-wearing pokémon, nodding, after squeaking from the sudden accidental threat to his new gift. He sniffed and bowed deeply to everyone. "Thank you so much, everyone," he said, voice getting slightly tight. "I'll be back someday! Don't you worry!" He turned and grabbed his trumpet case before jumping, taking off.

The others waved good-bye. "You make sure you let NOBODY get to ya, ya hear?!" demanded Charizard.

"Don't worry! You'll be fine! And thanks for being friends with us!" Charla assured and thanked.

"BE CAREFUL!" Liza shouted. "DON'T LET YOURSELF GET CAUGHT!"

"I hear, no problem, and I won't," returned Charlie over his shoulder as he shrank in the sky. He turned and focused his attention to soaring over the gates and away from the Charicific Valley.

**-*-**

Walking the path a mile down were Toby and Ariko, both with depressed faces on. "You think we're crazy?" asked Toby.

"More than usual? Yeah," Ariko nodded. "We probably just made someone there cry."

"I mean, strange stuff's happened in the world of pokémon before," Toby said, looking up, "but a human becoming a pokémon?..."

Ariko looked up. "Yeah, you're right," she sighed. "And why the hell would they turn into an overweight shiny charizard?"

"Yeah, what good would that do?" Toby asked, laughing.

"You'd be slow, not able to fly very well--" began Ariko.

Suddenly, both were tackled to the ground from behind and sent sliding for a few seconds. When they opened their eyes, they realized they were being hugged. "--and you can glomp people at over thirty miles per hour!!" finished a voice. They looked up and gasped as they saw the shiny charizard holding them. He was crying as he giggled and grin-smirked. "Honestly, you should be ready for anything this time-a year!"

Toby and Ariko gaped in horror, then amazement, turning into pure joy as their open mouths curled into smiles, tears starting in their eyes, as well. "Charlie..." Ariko whispered.

"It's...really you...?" Toby asked, whispering as well.

Charlie stood up, taking them with him. They were pressing into his gut, which was scraped up but otherwise intact. It had served to save his coat from being ruined and his friends from being hurt. After putting them down, he smirked and got out his trumpet, showing it to them. "Is this not YOUR fault, Toby?" he asked, raising an eyeridge and pointing at a dent on his bell.

Toby looked and bit his lower lip, sweatdropping. "Uhm...Yeah, looks like the same one I gave when I whacked it over one of the freshmen's heads once," he confirmed, nodding.

Charlie grinned, closing his case and putting it down. Ariko sniffed and squeaked, "I can't believe it!" before going and hugging hard. "Charlie!!" Tears began to fall.

"Holy shit, it's you!" Toby laughed, crying as well as he went and hugged, too. "I can't believe it--D'aim, you're fat," he couldn't help but add, lifting his head away and looking down at the big belly in front of him.

Charlie laughed and hugged both of them full-force. "Oh, my God, oh, my God," he croaked through grinning, gritted teeth, eyes closed. "You guys are the greatest! DAMN, I'm so fucking lucky!!"

"Damn straight you are, 'cuz nobody else'd be stupid enough to spend hundreds on a hunch about your fat ass," Ariko chuckled, arms fearlessly wrapped around his middle. "(Shit, you're officially my new teddy ursaring when we get home!)"

"(Heh!) How the fuck did you find me? How'd you know I was a fat charizard? Why the hell'd you even do this?" Charlie asked.

"Why? Well," Toby sniffed, choosing to go around his chest instead of the softer middle since it sorta freaked him out with how much was there, "Mr. Loudred's gonna kill you and we wanted to see it ourselves."

"Gee, thanks," Charlie laughed.

"But isn't the real reason obvious?" asked Toby, looking up and smiling.

"You're our best friend," Ariko answered for him, doing the same.

Charlie looked down at both of them, head to chest. "Awwwwwrr..." he went before squeezing them once more. "You morons!! You're gonna get busted, too!" he laughed. He let them go with a sigh, stepping back and looking at his coat. "Thanks so much for this, though," he added. "It looks great on me, I think!"

"Yeah, it really does," Ariko agreed, looking him up and down. "The wingholes work well enough?"

"Yep!" Charlie turned to show them, making them laugh a little. He scoffed. "Whaaaat?"

"You're a frikkin' pear, that's what!" Toby snorted, pointing.

"Gee, thanks," Charlie said again, crossing his arms. "I was thinking of giving you guys a ride, but if you're gonna rub in the fact I'm obese, nevermind."

They both squeaked and jumped at this. "No! I take it back! Nevermind!" Toby insisted, waving his hands and sweatdropping.

"We're, like, out of money!" Ariko reported. "We'd have to beg the airport to let us go on in luggage if we wanted to get back in time!"

Charlie sighed, shaking his head and putting his paws on his hips. "Oi...Why do I have to keep you guys in line ALL the time?" he asked, smiling and holding up his paws in the "Oh, well, what can ya do?" expression. He laughed, leaning over and getting his case. "C'mon, someone carry my case and we'll hunt for some berries," he said, walking over.

"You CAN walk," Toby couldn't help but marvel, and he laughed when he got lightly swatted on the head by Charlie's wing.

"I can't believe we were right that you were a charizard, now," Ariko marveled instead, looking up at him. "And a fat one. And, I dunno about SOME people," she added and glared at Toby for a second before looking up again, "but I think most pokémon look ADORABLE chubby!"

Charlie let a barklike laugh out. "RHAH! You call THIS chubby?!" he asked, turning his head to face down at her while prodding his middle. "This is downright obese!"

"Ya gotta agree, there, Arky," Toby raised a finger.

Ariko sighed and shrugged. "Yeah, well, I still think you're as cute as a button," she smiled. "Besides, now you can join the wrestling team like you wanted!"

"What, we have a sumo team, now?" Charlie wondered, raising his eyeridges. They laughed. "Seriously, how'd you know it was me?" he asked, crossing his arms.

Seeing his case in the arm nearest her, Ariko took it and put in her bag while Toby explained, "Well, nobody said anything about a human who matched your description, or any human on the charizard or in its arms. We also realized, with your big appetite, you might've gained a bit of weight, something charizard--especially the shiny ones--are prone to do if they aren't careful, which I bet you weren't."

"I wasn't," sweatdropped Charlie, "not on the way there, and it only made the gut I already got after transforming even WORSE." He growled at it. "I used to hate this thing, but...well..."

"We've got a LONG ways to go," Ariko said, motioning with her arm to the path in front of them.

"So we got all the time you need. We know it's gonna be a long yarn, so go and just spin it, Charlizard," Toby told him flatly, smiling wryly.

Charlie chuckled at the nickname. "Who the hell would've thought that name would fit so much?" he asked quietly. He sighed and shook his head before clearing his throat. "Well, it started the day after you told me my canines looked sharper than normal..."

**-*-**

Mr. Laddie, or "(Mr. )Loudred" as most of his pupils called him (even during class), chewed his lip worriedly, arms crossed. "We're missing the usual suspects," he complained to the woman next to him, the color guard director, "AND our three best trumpets, to boot. Plus, one of them's a section leader we would like in the second song and NEED in the third. They had BETTER have a good reason for this..."

"They really ought to be here," said the other director, hand on her hip. "But it's not the end of the world."

Laddie only made an angry/worried groan as he watched from behind the fence between the field and the bleachers behind him. In front of him, the band, in casual clothes, was filing into positions. He sighed and turned around, bringing out a megaphone he carried. "Alright," he began, "thank you all for coming tonight. Before we get to dinner, we've got something to show you. We're doing this now because we don't want them to be too full, as SOME of them are prone to get at buffet dinners." He looked over his shoulder and looked at a few of the students as they moved to their positions, ignoring him (but one or two blushing) as the crowd laughed a little. On the track in front of them, the non-marching percussion members and the add-ons--guitarists and singers--were standing to the ready by their instruments.

He looked back and continued, "Tonight's show is entitled 'Marching Band Hits', a pun off of how we say, 'Hit,' sometimes during drill. The show features five songs from around the world. It begins with a song from Great Britain, the invitingly singable (by most of the world) romp 'Yellow Submarine', highlighting the whole band with a nice start. Next it's America's 'Sink Into Me', featuring changing time signatures and accordingly interesting marching. Then, we travel to France for the classic 'L'Hymne à l'Amour', which..." He paused, grimacing, as he eyed Mrs. Pacific coming into the stands quietly, solemnly. "...well, was SUPPOSED to feature the wonderful playing of Section Leader Charlie Pacific, but will have to do without for tonight; we haven't had the time for a replacement, since he's the only one with the solo, and, well...you know."

The crowd was a bit quieter than normal that night for a moment. Everyone had heard the news: Charlie Pacific had gone missing, with only a shiny charizard seen at the scene of the crime. Laddie continued. "Moving along, the fourth song features our percussion with Mexico's 'Samba de Janeiro'. Finally, the whole shebang ends with a color guard-heavy finale from good ol' Japan, 'SAMURAI BLUE'. We encourage you to sing along with any song you know--just make sure you don't embarrass your children." He turned. "Drum Majors Daniel Tanning, Carrie Fay, and Yoko Yamimoto, are you ready?" he asked. They did their salute and the crowd cheered. "Is your band ready?...The Evertown Marching Magicians may now take the field in exhibition." He put his megaphone away while the drum majors and assistant drum majors climbed their ladders.

Meanwhile, on a bluff climbing behind the other side of the field, Charlie, Toby, and Ariko lay on their stomachs, watching the whole thing. They were unseen, thankfully. "Alright, you sure this is gonna work?" whispered Charlie worriedly. "I mean...it's a pretty major thing..."

"Well, nobody'd get anything happening if you came now, right during the first song," Ariko reasoned, shrugging. "It's too calm, and if you come in right when everyone's supposed to be going around at high energy, they'll be more worried about going than anything else, especially with the accidents that happened whenever someone wasn't paying attention." (Below, the center DM shouted, "DE-tail, AT-ten HUT!" and the whole field erupted in, "HUT!!" as everyone stood to attention.)

"Just get down there and do your thing at the time we told you, right?" Toby instructed. "We'll be fine. Just don't act like somethin's wrong--don't act like a wuss."

"Well, okay, but Ariko brings up a good question," Charlie held a claw up. He sweatdropped, motioning to his bulk. "You realize how many people I'm gonna run over with this?"

"That's only if they're stupid enough to not pay attention," Ariko said flatly. "Which means hopefully less than ten."

"Just keep your tail UP and out of the way and don't drag it like you like to do," Toby pointed at him. "Doesn't that hurt, by the way?"

"Not anymore," Charlie shook his head. "Besides, it's not dragging completely--my tip's always up."

"Yeah, or you'll put out your flame and die," Toby muttered. "Alright, no more time, we gotta go. Get ready, and let's kick some brass!"

Charlie nodded. "Right! Move out, Sir Tweedle-Dee and Madam Tweedle-Dum!" he pointed to their left.

""Yessir, King Queenie-pie!"" they saluted before scooting back and running as soon as they could stand without being seen. (They're trumpets. They're...different. Trust me.)

Charlie watched the show from behind. 'Wow...it's a good thing I've been running through this in my head these past two days and once physically this afternoon,' he thought. 'They're getting good.' He smirked. 'If they can get over me, we're gonna own SO much tail.' He was still worried. What if they DIDN'T accept him? What if they thought he was a freak? What if they thought he was a pokémon ready to be caught? He shook his head. 'No, stop thinking like that! FOCUS!!' He watched carefully. Yellow Submarine didn't take that much longer. To his relief, he saw his two friends running and skidding into place after it ended (earning a fierce glare from Laddie). 'Loudred's gonna use Hyper Voice, ain't he?' he thought, chuckling. As the next song started, he reached for his trumpet, out and on his wing to keep it clean. His jacket was open to keep it clean, too, and he wondered if he should close it. 'No, no time,' he thought as they went on.

This was his favorite song in the show. During the 3/4 part with the guitar, the band appeared to go all over the place, mixing in and out of each other, some people going for-/backwards, others going sideways, the two types switching off every six counts. Some went diagonal in both ways, switching diagonals each six. After the beginning, they also included marching circles and squares into different directions. It was the hardest song the school had ever marched, but it was going off without a hitch. When they went into standard 4/4 (like when the vocals come in), they went and did easier, simpler figures. As for the sets of "Hey!"s, the trumpet section stood still on either side of the field at first, alternating and pumping their fists up. The stands caught on after a sec, a few always accidentally adding some more after they had ended. When the chorus came in, the band marched in half time, most of the time. The next set of "Hey!"s were in motion, and the third set (after the second chorus) was whispered into the mic by the female singer. The male singer sang very well.

When the second chorus ended and the boy sang, "C'mon and have your way with me!" again, Charlie nodded and backed off to stand, crack his knuckles and neck, and then ran and took off right when the quiet part started. The crowd saw him very soon, then the directors, then the DM's. The singers were facing the crowd while they sang or chanted. They looked around at everyone looking and even pointing at something behind them midway through the third line and turned to look as they went into the fourth, dying off the "Hey"s and slowing down the last words ("...every word you...spoke...") as their jaws dropped open.

In the band, as they all bunched together to the center, leaving a space in the middle at the top of the field for Charlie's spot (they were told to, in respect of him as a missing person, leave his place open instead of filling the hole he made), Toby and Ariko, on either side of the hole in the line of trumpets across the front, looked up and smiled.

Charlie came falling down from twenty feet as the last line was said, slamming down on his footpaws and flinging dirt and grass with his landing on the ground (making a surprisingly small crater, this time). Very briefly, he looked up at everyone around him, all of them looking at him with their eyes. He looked in the crowd and saw his mom. After the second that had passed during this looking around, he smirked and looked up at the DM, then the singers. The pause had gone on for too long--two, now three seconds longer than normal. And all was dead silent. So, he took a deep breath and stole the singer's part for a second, letting out a microphoneless but loud enough scream,

"WOAAAOW!!"

On instinct, as soon as they heard the sound leave his throat, the DMs whipped around and raised their hands to give the downbeat and everyone in the band got ready again, the drumline raising their mallets while the guitarists raced their fingers up to the appropriate frets. And, without another hitch, as he held his trumpet in his left paw and balled a fist with the right, Charlie stood and led the trumpets in even heartier "Hey!"s and the rest of the band moved off and away, switching directions every six counts while still moving back. The crowd erupted in cheers and applause. In it, Charlie's mom smiled, eyes shining again.

When the singer came in again, the trumpets stood as normal again and started backwards marching in different ways before switching ways at the next six with everyone else as they all got into position. Everyone was careful and able to successfully move around Charlie's increased girth, even if they brushed against him.

After a bit, gathering at the back of the field, the band got into a giant rectangle with the section leaders in front of many of their sections as the bridge ended and the chorus started to begin. The trumpets had to play RIGHT after the last "Hey!", so they whipped their horns up to their lips and blew, everyone surprised (and some of the audience laughing incredulously) as Charlie performed as well as he always did. (The trumpet behind him, "Jub-Jub", sweatdropped at how close the flame was to him and his hair.)

Finally, as the last of the choruses came, the front line of section leaders began a sort of company front, high-stepping (the one where they lift a leg to form a right angle before stepping down again). Every two steps, the next line came in from behind. Everyone standing was high-stepping in place, something pretty hard for the percussion. The audience ate it up, since company fronts were very effective. By the last eight counts, the whole band was moving forwards, all the way to the end of the field.

When the last "...me" was sounded, the band went back to normal 4/4 marching, spreading out and back as they raced to positions. Then, the final four notes sounded--three drum hits with four bass guitar strums. On the first two drum hits, the inner two-fourths of the band got on one knee and lowered their instrument, each action occurring on a drum hit. The outside fourths were only one hit behind. The third and fourth hits had the ones on the left of the 50-yard line on the football field they marched on spread up and out their right arm at an angle and the ones on the left doing the opposite. (This was the arm opposite the knee on the ground.) Charlie, on the left of the line and right next to it, was smiling with an open mouth, panting as he held position. His gut touched the ground, but he didn't care.

When the DM's lowered their arms to signify the song ended, the crowd exploded into cheering. The DM's turned and bowed before turning again, motioned everyone to rise and raise their instruments, and got ready for the next song.

Charlie stood with his trumpet at the ready but not to his lips, mouth closed and face straight and serious. 'I kinda wish nobody could see what expression I've got even from the farthest seat,' he mused. The countoff began, and the unsung number began. Making his way slowly to the center of the field (about fifteen marching steps (5:8yds) off of the end of it), Charlie held his tail up high--but not so high his tail flame would catch fire to the hat he would have worn. He curved it down and flush to his back, which he did with his wings, too. He was keeping his extra extremities as close to him as he could to avoid too much trouble. He also took a deep breath--this was it. He stopped in his spot, slowly raising his trumpet to his lips and taking in a breath.

With as much care as he could, and using the fact his lungs were naturally more powerful than ever, he closed his eyes and started the melody off softly, but not so soft you can't hear him over the always-too-loud band accompaniment behind and around him.

One could imagine the words coming out of his trumpet. 'Le ceil bleu sur nous peut s'effondrer/Et la terre peut bien s'écrouler...'

He stayed in one spot for half of the song, even while some of the other band members joined him during the second part of the song. He opened his eyes and moved midway through the part, going with the flow of the music. He kept moving until the final part, where everyone stopped. He was in the back of the field and in the center once more, where he soloed the final line of the song. The song ended in place as the color guard finished it off.

The crowd was DUMBSTRUCK. It took a second before someone started clapping and whistling, cuing the others to join in. Charlie looked with his eyes to the direction of the sound, heart pausing as he recognized the voice of who it was that was cheering. 'LIZA?! What are YOU doing here??' he wanted to ask as he saw her standing to the right of the stands. Next to her were Charla and Charizard. 'They musta flown here with the carriage! How'd they find out...?'

The final two songs went off without a hitch. The female singer got a chance to shine while the percussion did their stuff and the trumpets played their part, important for the melody, with pride. The last one was the hardest, and Charizard, for reasons unknown to him, felt that there was something about the song that distantly related to him. Everyone knew the chorus's main line, even Liza, and the crowd joined in at it every time: "SAAAAAAA YU-GE! SAA-MUU-RAI BA-LOO!" The singers switched off every couple lines during each verse, combining during the chorus. The color guard went magnificently well, skilled enough to even avoid Charlie's tail when they got close to him, and the electric guitarist, showing off with HIS chance to shine during the solo, went flawlessly.

When the quiet bridge came, they all went one step per measure for four measures before doing half-time and finally stepping with each guitar strum before the final chorus. The field burst into song for a few seconds as the band joined their voices with the crowd in the main line before playing and marching once more. The crowd sang the final verse of the chorus, taking the cue from the singer after he made a "go on" gesture with his free arm between the main line and the other words. (And, yes, they did the call-and-response throughout the song, everybody on-field who could singing as well.) The final figure was the kanji for "music" (or was it "song"? It's the one that looks like a lyre, sorta), and it was finished getting into with each step going to the classic rhythm at the end.

ONE! TWO! THREE-AND-FOUR! ONE-AND-TWO-AND! "NIP-PON!!" (and-four)

The crowd stood and cheered and clapped, going wild for as small an audience it was. The two charizard spectating bugled, Charizard scaring a few people with a Flamethrower. The band panted, tired from the energetic, long performance. (They'd done each song in FULL, somehow doing different things each chorus and verse.) The DM's turned around and ordered everyone to get ready to go off the field. They went off in two rows, with Charlie and his friends in the middle of the right-hand line. Following the DM's, they marched along the track in front of the field and off. They were led into a circle once off-field, stopping and looking at each other after the "DE-tail, HALT!" (Ba-da-bu-DAH!) command was given.

In the center was Laddie. He smiled and looked at everyone, eyeing the crowd coming to go around their kids (and friends). "Alright, gotta make this quick," he began. "GREAT job, you guys! A few bobbles here and there, but absolutely PERFECT otherwise! Now let's push it to the competitions!" He waited for them to cheer a little. "Now let's go in and eat! But one thing, first," he added. He turned and pointed at Charlie, Toby, and Ariko. "YOU three are in BIG trouble, I hope you know," he said. They gave nervous smiles and chuckles. "But--um..." He faltered.

"What, doncha even recognize your own students anymore, Loudred?" Charlie asked, raising an eyeridge as he smirked and put a paw on his waist.

Laddie chuckled with everyone else. "Well, I'm sorry, but people really do look a lot different after they gain weight," he fought back, doing the same thing. Everyone laughed and went, "OOOOOOOH!"

Charlie half-eyed and frowned to one side, crossing his arms. "Gee, I wonder how YOU looked when you were younger, then," he retorted.

The band repeated their noise, but louder and longer as they turned back to the admittedly-not-thin Laddie. He was chuckling and smiling. "Welcome back, Charlie," he laughed, striding forwards and patting his shoulder. "Thanks for coming, no matter what happened to you."

Charlie smiled and nodded. "I wouldn't miss marching for the world if I could possibly help it," he said.

The crowd came over, then, and they all wanted to get to their kid and/or see Charlie. Charlie sweatdropped at this, neck extending up full. "*gulp* Uuuuhhhhhh..." He looked over and saw Charizard. In their language, he shouted over, "What do I do when I'm surrounded??"

"Use Fly in this case," Charizard replied back.

Charlie looked around him, seeing the people right up close to him, and looked flatly back at Charizard. "Fly, huh? Very funny," he said loudly in Human, and Charizard laughed.

"Charlie?"

Charlie breathed sharply and looked down. His mother was wading through the other people strongly, getting to him. "M...Mom..." he muttered, crouching down a bit to her.

She ran and stopped, panting in front of him. People respectfully cleared a space for them after being told of the relationship. "Charles Bubba Pacific?" she breathed.

Charlie smiled, though blushing at his full name's revelation. "Good, quick, get in," he returned the inside joke.

She smiled weakly, eyes crying a bit, before she ran forwards and hugged him. The crowd clapped, respectfully relatively quietly.

""I'm sorry,"" both whispered in each others' ears. At this, Charlie widened his eyes. "Huh?"

"...I knew you were that charizard the whole time," his mother whispered back after a pause where she swallowed with her tight throat. "I should've stayed there in the valley until we met again. I'm sorry--you must have thought..."

"I saw you, I was hiding," he confessed quickly. He smiled. "It's not your fault at all, Mom. It was mine. I was stupid enough to think the ones I loved the most wouldn't love me anymore after...this. And, uhm...I'm sorry for running away and for...well..." He sweatdropped and chuckled nervously. "...Busting a hole in the house and ruining my room."

"I don't care right now, Charlie," his mother shook her head, drawing away to look at him with a smile. "You're back and you're safe. That's all that matters right now."

Charlie smiled broadly, crying, himself. "Thank you, Mom," he said quietly.

"Hey, we gonna go and get some food?" Charizard asked, walking over with crossed arms.

"CHARIZARD!" scolded Charla, all-out punching him this time. "They're having a moment! Leave them be!"

"No, it's alright, we can talk later," Charlie laughed (still in Human), pushing his paws out. "And you've got a point, Charizard. C'mon, Mom, let's get some food."

**-*-**

When they all went to eat, Charlie was swarmed again by questions, and his mother was helpless with the amount of them. Charlie just had to take them one at a time. "It was weird and scary." "Yeah, pretty well, actually." "Lots and lots of practice." "No." "Yes." "You don't wanna know..."

Thankfully, Charizard, waiting at a table with Charla for Liza (who was behind Charlie and his mom), got fed up with the hold-up and the haranguing of his friend. He growled and stomped over, scaring a few people in his way before he stopped and roared nearby the crowd of people. They turned to see his face as he spoke. "He wants me to pass on the message that he wants you to shut up and leave me alone, already--his words, not mine," Charlie said, sweatdropping and looking sorry. The crowd dispersed instantly. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Charizard," he said. "They were getting on my nerves."

"Yeah, whatever, just quit holding up the line," he grumbled back before returning to his seat. He was, surprisingly, only given a disproving glare by Charla.

They got through the line and made their way to the table the other charizard were at. He saw that his friends and their family were there, too. One of the drum majors, Yoko, was actually Ariko's big sister. "You scared the CRAP outta us, Charlie!" she laughed when he finally sat down. "We thought you were a wild pokémon about to inadvertently ruin the whole thing!"

"Sorry!" Charlie apologized, looking like it. He smirked slyly. "You can thank your sister and Toby for the dramatic entrance."

"Charrrlieee!!" groaned Ariko, frowning. "Thanks for blowing our cover."

"Yeah, we're gonna get yelled at MORE, now," Toby moaned. They all laughed, though.

"Honey?" asked his mother.

"Hm?" Charlie turned to her.

"Aren't you hungry?" she asked, pointing to his plate. It had barely anything on it besides fruit, which he'd already eaten. "You usually eat something of everything...and I know you're even hungrier now that you've got a bigger stomach to fill." She sounded worried.

At this, Charlie sweatdropped enormously. "Erm..." He blushed and lowered his head, looking as if he'd flatten his ears if he could. "Well, it's kinda embarassing, but I've got a metabolism worse than a snorlax's, now," he admitted quietly. "If I eat anything with fat in it, I gain ALL of it minutes later."

"Aw, it only seems that way," Liza batted her hand, smiling. "Charizard can have slow metabolisms, but not THAT slow."

"Actually, I believe him," his mother said, nodding. She turned to him and instructed, "Charlie, just eat what you want and keep part of your mind focused on keeping it at bay. It's easier than you think. We'll deal with it when we get home."

Charlie was taken aback at the confidence in her voice. "Uhm...Erm...alright," he said, sweatdropping. "I'll, erm, get back in line..."

"I'm sorry, but after what you've been through, I think you deserve to have whatever you want," his mother sweetly reasoned, smiling. She winked playfully. "Just leave some for the rest of us!"

"Awwwwwwr..." Charlie growl-groaned, wings drooping, and everyone laughed. He smiled at his joke and turned.

Indeed, his appetite WAS bigger. He returned with a show of how good he was with his wings, now. They were both turned sideways and open, acting as platforms for his four full plates of food, a big drink of soda in each paw. He had to walk carefully, though, since he had to go around people who were taller than his wings were the way he had them. The humans of the table applauded him when he was victorious in returning (asking for help to unload, of course). "How'd you learn THAT?!" Charizard asked, amazed and impressed. "You've GOT to teach me when you get back!"

"I figured it out on my own, and I know," he returned.

"It's not that hard," Charla commented, doing one wing. Charizard growled and tried to do one, but he couldn't move it right. Charla giggled. "So, the great Charizard isn't the best at EVERYTHING, is he?" she asked.

"Sh-Shut up!" Charizard snapped shortly, blushing, and everyone laughed after Charlie translated the two lines.

Charlie, after asking Liza if anything he had was poisonous to charizard, was content after an entire deluxe pizza, a root beer float, a tall cup of Sprite, and enough sweets to make anyone push their plate away if made to do it in one sitting. He looked very worriedly at his belly, though. 'Oh, God, I hope Mom's right,' he thought.

She was, to his relief. It held out until the end of the night, which included him, Toby, and Ariko getting yelled at by Loudred, who they swore used an honest-to-goodness Hyper Voice. Before they left, Charlie turned to Liza. "Why'd you come?" he asked. "How'd you know?"

She smiled. "Well, for one, you might want this bag for the coat," she said, holding up the black bag. "For two, I've got a letter for you, to my surprise." She handed him a large envelope, instantly giving him an idea who it was from. "And for three," she finished, grinning, "you're a friend of mine and the other two's. We wanted to see you doing what you loved, see you finally happy. That is...ARE you happy?" she asked, tilting her head.

Charlie smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I'm happy, now," he answered. "Thank you so much for everything. I'm sorry for all the trouble I gave you."

"And thank you for looking after my son," his mother bowed.

Liza scoffed, smirking. "Hey, I just nursed him back to health when he came in," she said, holding up her hands. "Charizard and Charla are the ones who took care of him most. I'll pass it on," she added, laughing, before the mother could move. "And don't worry, Charlie," she turned to him, waving a hand. As she continued, Charlie's face slowly started to fall from happiness to pure horror. "It's my job to take care of charizard. This includes humans who turn into them, then act emo, try to starve themselves, try to kill themselves twice, steal--even if it's their own trumpet--pick a fight with a Trained charizard, and then leave without even saying where exactly he's going. I had to go online to find this place." She smirked and put a hand on her hip.

Charlie's face was all black and white by the time she was done, shocked at the shameless revelations in front of his mom. "Charlie?" asked a firm voice. He turned his head, frame by frame, until his whole body turned truly monochrome. His mother was standing, rage forming flames around her as she looked with murderous eyes at him. "You have a LOT of explaining to do when we get home," she said through gritted teeth.

Charlie whined, T_T-facing. "Well, it was good while it lasted," he sighed in a broken voice.

Liza laughed.

Epilogue

Charlie was able to get ready for bed and all that while maintaining focus on not gaining weight, but found he couldn't keep it up much longer afterward—and he knew that it'd drop while he slept, anyway. So, in his room, when he dropped his focus, he gawked and quickly found himself with a belly spilling out onto the floor with at least a one-and-a-half-foot wide part resting on it. He had to lift it with his arms and girthier tail to move, grumbling the whole time. 'Why would Mom tell me this if she knew this'd happen?' he wondered. He thought for a moment, raising an eyeridge. The floor creaked ominously with each even larger footpawfall. 'How'd she know I'd turned into a charizard to begin with? How'd she know that I could suppress my weight gaining?' He looked over his shoulder, noting in the back of his mind how much easier that was now that he had a long neck, at the door. He frowned, stopping briefly. 'Mom, what are you hiding...?' He shook his head and turned back to his task at paw.

Getting into the place his bed lay, frameless from his little rampage, and looking at the boarded-up spot in his wall, Charlie sighed and attempted to curl up, finding (and blushing while he did) that lying on his stomach much more comfortable while it was so big. He then took out the letter from his coat and removed the clothes carefully, setting them on a hook on the wall. He opened the letter, reading with the light of his tail (which his mother had told him to hold or keep on him while he slept or he was a dead 'mon). The handwriting was big and edgy. He chuckled at the sender, saying, "I knew it."

_ My little Charlie,_

_I hear you left. I thought you would and am glad you have found your old friends. I wish you the best in society. As well, I wish you luck in life in general. I hope you enjoy spending time with your human family. However...I will admit; you are a son to me. I love you very dearly, no matter how short the time we spent was, and I will always welcome you back with open arms. No--you don't need to think of me as a father if you don't want to. I understand. I'm very glad I met you._

_I also think you should know a few secrets that I am sure you will appreciate. One is that I sense a different power within you--one I am sure is related to the very odd transformation you described to me. (Charlie had recounted in detail his story to the elder shiny sometime after getting his new cave from him.) Another is related to it and is a power I, too possess. In fact, I have to use it on a twice-weekly basis if I value my mobility! A useful skill usually used by well-lived snorlax is a move some humans who discovered it called "Fat Burn". By focusing our power of fire and willing our bodies to do so, we can use our fat as a source of energy directly instead of using normal energy stores to fuel a flame surrounding our whole beings. Most pokémon burn about 1 1/3 pounds, by human measurements, each second, but those with especially slow metabolisms burn at a much faster rate. Us shiny charizards are able to get rid of over 5 pounds per second! As a bonus, though our Defense falls while in use, Fat Burn will damage and may burn anyone physically attacking you (and may burn anyone you physically attack). It's difficult to use well in battle, though. Just be careful—while you and anything you are wearing will be unscathed, your surroundings shall not._

Charlie looked away at his massiveness thoughtfully, then at the door. 'I could probably go into the bathroom, hide the rug, stand in the middle, and use Fat Burn,' he theorized. 'The floor's stone tile. It should be fine.' He turned back to the letter.

_As well, you gain weight faster than anything I have heard of--even me. This is not normal, and I think you should investigate it. (This might yield an even greater effect with Fat Burn, though!) If anything strange happens further to your body--say, more transformation--if you are able to, contact me and I will do all I can to help. Continue to do what you do, but come visit once in a while if you can. We may live nearly on opposite sides of the land, but it cannot be _too_ difficult...can it?_

_I love you, little one, and miss your beautiful trumpet-playing already. Tell your mother she is very lucky to have you as a son. Oh, and don't worry--I know of a way for you to not gain weight instantly, but I don't have space for it. _(Indeed, he was already on the other side of the heavy paper.) _Thank you for coming into our lives, and be safe and happy._

_ With love and care,_

_** Gigaiya the Gargantuan**_

Charlie smiled and folded the letter. "Thanks, Gigaiya," he said quietly, putting it on the floor beside him. He stretched and yawned, deciding he'll try that move in the morning, and, embarrassed to himself, slept on his ludicrously large lump. When he awoke the next morning, he did go into the bathroom (going through doors with difficulty) and, moving the rug, sat down and closed his eyes, focusing hard. His tailflame soon flared up as his whole body ignited and he opened his eyes. He felt instantly tired and soon panted, but he kept it up since he saw and felt his fat almost literally melt away. After a short time, he was standing and the flames stopped around him, even though he didn't stop the move—he was done. He smiled--then frowned when he saw he was still pretty big. In fact, he was just as big as he was after the initial belly came in (after its exaggerated growth phase ended). 'Great, it's got limits,' he complained. He sighed hopelessly, flopping his arms to his sides. "I'm never gonna be thin...What kinda sick, cosmic joke _is_ this?"

Regardless, he still didn't hate his fatness--he just preferred it if he could be thin again. He liked it when in battle, though, as he had to be more than a few times in school when it started a half a month later. Yes, he was able to go to school. However, he wasn't as accepted as he'd hoped, but that was only by a few people, relatively. He did well, and his friends supported him. He also worked out a deal with the school and his teachers: Every other week would be spent living in Johto, in the Charicific Valley, where he would spend some time studying the work he'd miss and the rest with his other friends and adopted family. (Speaking of, his mother never explained how she knew so much about him...He eventually guessed that she read it somewhere, since she was one of those people who liked to look up random information on Wikipedia on a regular basis.)

Before then, of course, was two days after returning home. He and the rest of the band were put on a bus to their first competition, an invite in Riverhelm.

The rest, as they say, is history.

- - -

Thank you all for reading this. If this fanfic isn't the one with the most of my furry background in it, I dunno WHICH is...(Until the next EBA/Ouendan fic backstory--though that one will be more normal romance than furry-influenced. IN A HARMLESS WAY!! A HARMLESS WAY!! *MAJAH sweatdrop*) Editing this, I think I'm going to continue Charlie's story, after rewriting it to have no reference of the major fics this one is tied to so that it can fit into the other bigger, Pokémon-only story I've got planned. (In fact, it'll have a lot of characters introduced in my EBA/Ouendan fic and my huge KH fic; I MIGHT consider not rewriting stuff and just ignoring past events, but that'd not only be stupid, but I might not want to--I want to involve Maru in it, but differently than the way he is in the KH fic. (If you're lost, read my KH fic!! Shameless self-advertising for the win!! XD)) Anyway, please review and use CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, NOT FLAMES, if you're not exactly happy. Spanks! ^_^


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